122  The  College  Girl  of  America 

through  the  unknown  ways  of  college  life,"  and 
especially  through  the  mazes  of  the  group  system. 
Sometimes  much  sage  advice  is  given  with  the  light, 
and  once  the  unfortunate  freshmen  won  their  lan- 
terns only  after  passing  an  impromptu  oral  exami- 
nation. The  form  of  the  affair  differs  with  the 
character  and  resources  of  the  class  giving  it ;  but  as 
preparations  for  it  are  begun  in  the  freshmen  year, 
the  offering  is  usually  both  clever  and  original. 

The  farewell  lantern  celebration  is  at  the  alumnae 
supper  given  on  Commencement  evening.  Here  a 
speech  of  welcome  is  made  to  the  new  alumnae,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  festivities  the  lights  are  turned 
low,  and  the  lanterns,  standing  at  each  place,  are 
lighted  from  one  large  lantern  that  has  been  burn- 
ing throughout  the  evening  at  the  head  of  the 
table.  Holding  the  lighted  lanterns,  the  alumnae 
sing  the  old  college  song.  Then  they  slowly  go  out, 
leaving  their  bright  lights  still  burning  on  the 
deserted  board. 

A  very  pretty  old  English  custom  has  recently 
been  revived  at  Bryn  Mawr.  Early  on  the  morning 
of  May-day  the  students  search  the  woods  and  fields 
near  the  college  for  wild  flowers,  with  which  they 
fill  dainty  baskets  that  they  deposit,  a  little  later, 
at  the  doors  of  favoured  friends.  At  one  particular 
May-time,  a  few  years  ago,  Bryn  Mawr  conducted 


Bryn  Mawr  College  123 

festivities  appropriate  to  the  season  upon  a  huge, 
though  highly  artistic,  scale.  There  were  then  no 
less  than  four  May-poles,  as  well  as  a  number  of 
plays  to  raise  money  for  the  students'  building. 
And,  following  the  old  English  May  custom,  every- 
body —  except  guests  —  was  in  costume,  beggars, 
peddlers,  fortune-tellers,  and  merry  Maid  Marians, 
chaffering  gaily  on  the  mossy  greensward  with  all 
whom  they  encountered.  The  gowns  were  carefully 
thought  out  and  were  historically  correct,  a  feeling 
for  history  so  tempering  the  desire  for  fun  that  noth- 
ing anachronistic  was  permitted  in  the  day's  exer- 
cises. As  a  natural  consequence  this  May-day  is 
still  remembered  with  pride  by  the  friends  of  the 
college. 

Short  as  has  been  the  life  of  Bryn  Mawr,  there  is 
already  connected  with  it  a  wealth  of  interest  and 
tradition.  Each  class  has  a  seal,  a  dolphin,  a  beaver, 
or  some  other  animal,  which  every  member  wears 
in  ring  form,  and  in  the  use  of  the  lanterns  not  a 
little  originality  and  ingenuity  have  been  displayed. 
The  first  lantern,  pointed  out  to  the  visitor  of  to-day 
with  impressive  reverence  by  the  undergraduate, 
was  a  plain  little  candlestick.  From  then  up  to  the 
present  time,  every  sort  of  lantern  has  been  used. 
All  the  residence  halls  —  except  the  newest  one  — 
bear  the  names  of  Welsh  counties,  a  thing  which 


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i 


7  rv 

A    TYPICAL    COLLEGE    GIRL    OF    AMERICA         v       «   , 


d-^^tfDf  H 


'U\ 


tlDfje  College  (©iri 
of  ameriea  ^  ^ 

AND   THE    INSTITUTIONS    WHICH 
MAKE    HER    WHAT     SHE    IS 


By 

MARY   CAROLINE    CRAWFORD 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  ROMANCE  OF  OLD  NEW 
ENGLAND  ROOFTREES,"  "THE  ROMANCE 
OF  OLD  NEW  ENGLAND  CHURCHES,"  ETC. 


SrUttfiJtrateU 


L.  C.   PAGE   &   COMPANY 
BOSTON     ir     i?    ^      1905 


If; 


Copyright,  igo4 
By  L.  C.  Page  &  Company 

(INCORPO  rated) 


All  rights  reserved 


Published  October,  1904 


COLONIAL   PRESS 
Blectroiyped  and  Printed  by  C.  H.  Simonds  6f  Co. 
...     ^  Boston,  Mass.,, l/.jS. A. 


The  College  Girl  of  America 


"W^ofks  of 

Mary  Caroline  Crawford 

The  Romance  of  Old  New  Eng- 
land Roof  trees  .        .        ♦        .  $J.50 

The  Romance  of  Old  New  Eng- 
land Churches   •        •        •        •     1*50 

The  College  Girl  of  America,  net    J,60 
postpaid     J, 75 

L.  C.  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

New  England  Building 

Boston,  Mass* 


INSCRIBED 
TO  THE    MEMORY   OF 

9lltce  freeman  JJalmer 

WHO   LOVED   ALL   COLLEGE  GIRLS 

«  Hers  was  a  life  in  industry  and  energy  marvellous 
and  undaunted,  dedicated  to  large  and  ever  larger 
uses,  and  inspired  from  first  to  last  by  the  loftiest 
ideality."  —  Richard  Watson  Gilder. 


9i8(i93 


Introduction 


A  The  college  girl  is  to-day  a  force  second  to  none 
X  in  American  life.  She  it  is  who  will  mould  the 
minds,  modify  the  manners,  and  help  raise  the 
moral  tone  of  the  men  and  women  of  the  future. 
And  she  will  do  this  not  merely  through  her  school- 
teacher function,  —  though  there,  of  course,  her  in- 
fluence must  be  tremendous,  —  not  chiefly  through 
the  relation  of  wife  and  mother,  though  that,  too, 
is  of  vast  importance,  but  principally  and  above  all, 
I  believe,  through  her  every-day  intercourse  with 
those  about  her,  as  the  friend  of  her  chosen  inti- 
mates, the  companion  of  her  chance  associates,  and 
the  comrade  of  her  fellow  workers.  The  kind  of 
influence  any  college  girl  exerts  is,  of  course,  deter- 
mined in  great  measure  by  the  kind  of  woman  that 
she  is.  And  the  kind  of  woman  that  she  is  depends 
very  largely,  in  these  days,  upon  the  social  and 
intellectual  atmosphere  of  the  college  from  which 
she  has  been  graduated.    All  these  colleges,  it  may 


vi  Introduction 

at  once  be  said,  are  religious  in  their  conception 
and  tone.  People  outside  the  college  gates  have 
worried  a  good  deal  latterly  over  this  matter,  but 
their  anxiety,  it  would  appear,  has  been  quite  un- 
necessary, for  the  college  girl  certainly  finds  relig- 
ious training  of  some  kind,  and  usually  of  a  very 
good  kind,  in  college.  But  the  sort  of  social  and 
intellectual  training  she  receives  depends  vastly 
upon  the  institution.  For  that  reason  it  has  seemed 
to  me  worth  while  to  study  with  some  care  here 
life  in  the  different  women's  colleges  of  first  rank 
in  this  country. 

So  far  as  has  been  possible,  —  depending  as  one 
must  upon  the  latest  reports  made  to  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Education  (two  years  back  in  many  cases), 
—  the  colleges  have  all  been  presented  in  the  order 
of  their  present  student  enrolment,  —  with  the  one 
exception  of  Simmons  College,  which  has  been 
placed  at  the  end  because  it  does  not  yet  give  the 
degree,  as  do  the  others  here  chosen  for  representa- 
tion. 

I  have  taken  for  granted  in  this  book  the  value 
of  a  college  training  for  girls.  If  that  question  has 
not  yet  been  settled,  as  I  believe  it  has,  it  is  not 
the  province  of  this  particular  work  to  settle  it. 
Into  the  debate  as  to  the  "  unsexing  "  which  may 
come  upon  American  womanhood  as  a  result  of 


Introduction  vii 

college  life,  I  have  chosen,  too,  not  to  enter.  The 
world  in  general,  I  think,  has  come  quite  sufficiently 
to  the  belief  of  Mr.  George  Herbert  Palmer,  pro- 
fessor of  philosophy  in  Harvard  University,  who 
put  himself  on  record  some  time  ago  to  the  effect 
that  if  a  woman  cannot  stand  a  college  training  it 
speaks  pretty  badly  for  her  womanly  qualities.  "  I 
have  no  use,"  he  said,  pithily,  "  for  womanhood  that 
won't  wash." 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  college,  far  from 
hurting  girls,  helps  them  more  than  people  in  gen- 
eral have  any  means  of  knowing.  Old  President 
Quincy  of  Harvard  once  declared  that  a  man  got 
a  good  deal  out  of  college  if  he  just  rubbed  his 
shoulders  against  the  college  building.  A  woman 
may  be  said  to  get  a  good  deal  out  of  college  even 
if  she  never  gets  further  than  the  entrance  exam- 
inations. For  during  those  few  hours,  at  least,  she 
has  had  the  advantage  of  standing  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  representative  young  women  of  all 
localities,  bound  together  by  a  common  interest,  and 
bent  upon  a  common  intellectual  end.  As  to  the 
girl  who  has  really  entered  college  and  lived  its 
varied  life,  all  that  she  gets  from  her  associates 
could  not  be  written  in  many  books  the  size  of  this 
one.  From  the  Southern  girl,  beside  whom  she 
trains    in    the    gymnasium,    she    acquires   without 


viii  Introduction 

knowing  it  a  hint  of  the  angle  of  vision  pecuhar 
to  that  part  of  our  country;  from  the  Westerner, 
who  sings  next  her  in  the  Glee  Club,  she  learns  what 
a  small  thing  it  is  to  judge  people  by  their  family, 
instead  of  by  character  and  attainment;  from  the 
millionaire's  daughter  she  discerns  the  futility  of 
wealth  as  a  covering  for  vulgarity,  and  by  knowing 
the  ambitious  New  England  girl,  whose  poverty 
makes  her  only  more  proud,  she  comes  to  regard 
with  proper  reverence  those  families  of  austere  life 
and  lofty  thinking  who  have  been  poor  country 
ministers  for  generations,  perhaps.  In  adjusting 
herself  to  so  many  tyi>es,  she  grows,  perforce,  dem- 
ocratic; and  it  is  the  most  important  thing,  of  all 
important  things,  in  this,  our  country,  that  women 
should  be  democratic. 

Again,  the  college  woman  is  especially  valuable 
to  the  world  as  an  exponent  of  culture.  The  future 
of  American  culture  depends  on  the  women.  They 
alone  have  the  leisure  for  it.  And  upon  the  college 
woman  who  has  been  laying  up  stores  of  intel- 
lectual wealth  rests  the  duty  of  redeeming  the  over- 
commercial  tone  Americans  are  in  danger  of  ac- 
quiring. The  value  of  the  discipline  of  college,  too, 
is  a  thing  which  should  not  be  ignored.  But  more 
important  than  anything  else  —  perhaps  because 
up  to  the  present  its  importance  has  been  largely 


Introduction  ix 

overlooked  —  is  the  training  in  poise  college  may 
and  should  give  a  girl.  The  daughter  of  a  me- 
chanic frequently  becomes  in  this  country  the 
mother  of  our  most  distinguished  citizen,  —  not  to 
mention  her  possible  relationship  to  the  English 
nobility.  College,  then,  should  turn  her  out  *'  fit " 
for  whatever  life  shall  bring. 

It  is,  however,  to  a  figure  used  by  Mr.  Hamilton 
Wright  Mabie,  in  a  graduation  address  which  he 
gave  last  year,  that  I  must  resort  to  define  the  par- 
ticular object  of  this  book.  Mr.  Mabie  spoke  of 
sitting  in  a  sheltered  sunny  shipyard,  watching  the 
men  at  work  upon  a  great  schooner.  In  that  quiet 
spot  there  was  no  suggestion  of  the  ocean  that  lay 
not  far  beyond,  only  the  sunshine  and  the  blue  sky 
and  the  steady,  rhythmic  sound  of  the  workmen's 
tools.  Yet  this  was  a  most  important  period  in  the 
ship's  life;  every  nail  that  was  driven  home  true 
would  one  day  help  her  out  there  upon  the  stormy 
sea  to  withstand  wind  and  rain.  The  time  would 
come  when  every  stroke  deftly  dealt  now  would  tell 
tremendously  for  better  or  for  worse.  For  this  was 
the  time  of  preparation.  Because  college,  too,  is  a 
time  of  preparation,  conditions  there  during  the 
building  of  the  girl  are  of  importance.  Different 
temperaments,  different  needs,  require,  of  course, 
different  things.     It  is  my  hope  that  this  volume 


X  Introduction 

may,  in  some  cases,  at  least,  assist  the  fitting  of 
the  particular  temperament  to  the  institution  which 
can  best  help  it  to  sane,  sound  womanhood. 

It  but  remains  to  acknowledge,  with  gratitude, 
the  kindly  help  generously  given  me  by  friends  all 
over  the  country;  and  particularly  to  express  my 
indebtedness  to  the  publishers  of  the  Century  Mag- 
a^inCj  —  by  whose  gracious  permission  I  have  been 
enabled  to  reproduce  here  portions  from  their  "  Fes- 
tivals in  Women's  Colleges,"  —  to  the  New  England 
Magazine  for  credited  extracts,  and  to  the  editors 
of  the  Outlook,  for  allowing  me  here  to  reprint  the 
substance  of  an  article  on  "  New  Occupations  for 
Educated  Women,"   which  I   contributed  to  their 

publication  last  year.  M.  c.  c. 

Charlestown,  Massachusetts, /««^,  igo4» 


Contents 


PAGE 

Introduction v 

»^Smith  College   ..••••••  i 

Wellesley  College 31 

Vassar  College 54 

M^HoLYOKE  College 71 

B|fl|LiFFE  College 96 

^^^wTawr  College 118 

vHPTrd  College 130 

The  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore    .        .        .  144 
The  Randolph  -  Macon  Woman's  College     .        .154 

The  Woman's  College  in  Brown  University       .  163 

Elmira  College 170 

Wells  College 183 

RocKFORD  College 194 

Mills  College 206^ 

Simmons  College 217 

Newcomb  and  Other  Colleges  of  the  South     .  225 

Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West         .        .  242 

Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  East  .        .        .  279 

After  College  —  What 29T 

Conclusion 309 

Index ,        .        .        .315 


• 


List  of  Illustrations 


— ♦ 

PAGE 

A  Typical  College  Girl  of  America    •        Frontispiece 
Birthplace  of  Sophia  Smith.  —  Chapel  and  En- 
trance TO  Smith  College         ....        2 
Lauremus  Clark  Seelye.  —  Homestead  of  Judge 

Dewey 8 

Boating    on    the    Paradise.  —  Playing    Hockey 

near  the  Observatory 12 

Hall  of  the  Students'  Building,  Junior  Prom.       15 
Commencement  Ivy  Procession        .        .        .        .18 

A  Wellesley  Girl 31 

WelleIley  College  Buildings        ....      40 

A  Wellesley  Girl's  Room 42 

May -DAY  Hoop -rolling.  —  Tree  Day    ...      48 

Main  Building 58 

A  Senior  Birthday  Party 62 

A  Performance  of  "Antigone"      ....      65 

A  Mt.  Holyoke  Girl 71 

The  Tennis-courts. — A  Performance  of  "Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream"    .        .        .        •         .       84 
-  DAY  Procession.  —  May  -  pole  Dance     .        .      86 

adcliffe  Girl 96 

OF  the  Characters  in  "  Athalie  "         .        .108 
Cast  of  "The  Copper  Complication"  .        .112 

RYN  Mawr  Girl -118 

NT  Mawr  from  the  Athletic  Field  .        .124 

ERNOON  Tea  in  a  Barnard  Girl's  Room         .     138 
NARD     Seniors     Marching    to    Columbia    to 

Receive  Their  Degrees 142 

ziii 


xiv  List  of  Illustrations 

PAGE 

Centre  Pavilion,  Main  Building    .        .        .        .148 

A  Randolph  -  Macon  Girl 154 

The  College  Building. — The  Gymnasium    .        .156 

A  Brown  Girl 163 

Class -day    Procession.  —  Basket-ball   Team. — 

The  "Komians" 168 

An  Elmira  Girl 170 

The  First  Class  to  Graduate  from  a  Woman's 

College   in  America The    First   College 

Degree  Ever  Given  a  Woman  in  America   .  172 

Basket-ball  Team 187 

A  RocKFORD  Girl       .......  194 

A  Group  of  Mills  Seniors 206 

Basket-ball  Team.  —  A   Ride    With    "Michael, 

the  Faithful" 210 

Simmons  College  Building 219 

Main    Entrance    to    Newcomb    College.  —  New- 
comb  College  Chapel 228 

The  Pottery  Department,  Newcomb  College. — 

A  Painting  Class,  Newcomb  College     .        .  230 

Golf  Links,  University  of  Missouri     .        .        .  232 
A  Basket-ball   Contest,   Rollins    Institute. — 

A  Coasting  Party,  Hollins  Institute    .        .235 
Parlour   at    Mary    Baldwin    Seminary.  —  Golf 

Links  at  Mary  Baldwin  Seminary          .        .  236 

A  Coeducated  Girl  of  the  West  ....  242 

Basket-ball  Team,  University  of  Nebraska      .  254 

A  Cooking  Class,  University  of  Illinois     .        .  262 

A  Group   of  Seniors,  Kansas   State  University  268 
Inaugural     Procession,     Oberlin.  —  Severance 

Laboratory,  Oberlin 274 

A  Coeducated  Girl  of  the  East  .        •        .        .  279 

A  Chafing-dish  Party,  Cornell    .        •        .        .  282 

A  Wesleyan  Girl 289 


The 

College  Girl  of  America 


SMITH    COLLEGE 

Few  acts  possible  to  humanity  are  more  noble 
than  to  provide  for  generations  to  come  privileges 
and  rich  opportunities  for  which  one  has  oneself 
longed  all  through  life  in  vain.  The  men  who  have 
founded  colleges  have  usually  lacked  the  culture  a 
college  course  gives,  and,  from  the  nature  of  things, 
no  college-bred  woman  has  yet  started  an  institu- 
tion for  the  higher  education  of  girls.  But  of  the 
women  of  limited  education  who  have  thus  served 
young  womanhood,  no  other  has  left  so  plain  a 
record  of  her  own  keen  sense  of  what  she  missed 
as  Sophia  Smith,  founder  of  Smith  College.  To 
her  clergyman,  the  Rev.  John  M.  Greene,  D.  D., 
who  had  proposed  to  her  that  she  bequeath  her 
generous   fortune  to  found  this  woman's  college, 


2  The  College  Girl  of  America 

she  replied,  as  she  accepted  his  suggestion :  "  I 
wish  I  could  have  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  such 
a  college  when  I  was  a  girl;  it  would  have  made 
my  life  far  richer  and  happier  than  it  has  been." 

Yet  Sophia  Smith  was  born  and  reared  under 
a  fortunate  star,  and  had  a  satisfactory  life  —  as 
life  used  to  be  regarded.  Her  paternal  ancestor  in 
the  sixth  generation  was  Lieutenant  Samuel  Smith, 
one  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  original  settlers 
in  Hadley,  from  whom,  it  is  very  interesting  to 
know,  Mary  Lyon,  the  founder  of  Mt.  Holyoke 
Seminary,  now  Mt.  Holyoke  College,  also  traced 
descent.  Hatfield,  Miss  Smith's  lifelong  home,  was 
noted  for  its  scholars.  That  it  did  not  itself  be- 
come a  college  town  is  rather  curious,  inasmuch  as 
all  its  ambitions  tended  in  that  direction.  Back 
in  Colonial  days  the  citizens  of  the  place  even  went 
so  far  as  to  erect  a  building  which  they  called 
"  Queen's  College,"  and  for  which  the  governor, 
Sir  Francis  Bernard,  issued  a  charter  in  King 
George's  name.  But,  yielding  to  the  opposition 
strongly  brought  to  bear  upon  him,  Sir  Francis 
later  cancelled  his  permission  —  and  Hatfield  lost 
its  college.  Yet  when  Sophia  Smith  was  born,  four 
years  before  the  birth  of  the  wonderful  nineteenth 
century,  the  aspiration  for  a  college  had  by  no  means 
died  out  of  the  town. 


BIRTHPLACE    OF    SOPHIA    SMITH. 


1 

^^H^^^T^'  iim^H 

^^^^^■jMH^jO^PHI^^^H 

IBiiiiMr*^    '^  '^ '-"  '•■  ^  ^- 

: 

■ 

flH^lH 

CHAPEL    AND    ENTRANCE    TO    SMITH    COLLEGE. 


4  The  College  Girl  of  America 

women  educational  advantages  equal  to  those  pro- 
vided for  young  men.  Yet,  when  the  two  plans 
were  presented  to  Miss  Smith,  after  very  little  de- 
lay, she  decided  to  accept  the  one  which  provided 
for  the  college.  The  idea  pleased  her.  "  She  had 
faith  in  it,"  Doctor  Greene  records,  "  as  desirable 
and  feasible." 

That  she  was,  however,  "  but  yet  a  woman  "  is 
very  plain  from  what  followed.  Because  the  out- 
side discouragement  was  so  great,  the  will  of  1861, 
when  eventually  made,  provided  for  the  deaf-mute 
institution  instead  of  for  the  college.  None  the 
less,  it  would  appear  that  Sophia  Smith  was  Heaven- 
ordained  to  start  the  project  toward  which  her 
heart  yearned.  For,  six  years  later,  a  rich  man 
of  Northampton  having  liberally  provided  for  the 
deaf  mutes.  Miss  Smith  felt  quite  at  liberty  to  fol- 
low her  own  desires.  Accordingly,  the  will  was 
changed ;  an  able  body  of  trustees  was  chosen,  and, 
on  July  II,  1868,  the  quiet  Hatfield  gentlewoman 
became  the  founder  of  what  is  now  the  largest  girls' 
college  in  the  country. 

From  the  very  first  Miss  Smith  understood  that 
her  college  would  embody  four  cardinal  principles: 
(i)  The  educational  advantages  provided  by  it 
would  be  equal  to  those  afforded  young  men  in 
their  colleges;    (2)    Biblical  study  and  Christian 


\ 

^  Smith  College  5 

religious  culture  would  be  given  prominence;  (3) 
The  cottage  system  of  buildings,  or  homes  for  the 
students,  instead  of  one  mammoth  central  building, 
would  prevail;  (4)  Men  would  have  a  part  in  the 
government  and  instruction  in  it  as  well  as  women, 
"  for  it  is  a  misfortune  for  young  women  or  young 
men  to  be  educated  wholly  by  their  own  kind." 
These  four  ideas  were  in  Miss  Smith's  mind,  and 
were  clearly  expressed  in  the  documents  connected 
with  the  founding  of  the  college. 

Of  course  a  scheme  so  large  and  broad  as  this 
one  was  of  small  growth.  At  one  time  the  plan 
even  was  to  have  the  college  in  Hatfield,  —  so  long 
kept  waiting  for  such  distinction,  —  but  afterward, 
at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Greene,  Miss  Smith's  ever- 
trusted  helper  in  the  matter,  the  site  was  changed 
to  Northampton.  To  people  generally,  no  word 
was  dropped  concerning  the  plan.  But  in  Hatfield, 
as  in  all  small  New  England  towns,  curiosity  is  a 
master  passion,  and,  during  the  last  years  of  Miss 
Smith's  life,  the  most  interesting  of  all  questions 
•  among  the  village  folk  was,  "  Who  will  get  her 
money  ?  "  A  silence  like  that  of  the  sphinx,  how- 
ever, brooded  over  the  mystery.  Occasionally  a 
stranger  would  come,  by  stage  or  carriage,  to  the 
old  tavern  near  the  Smith  home,  go  to  the  house 
for  a  few  hours,  and  then  steal  away  as  silently 


6  The  College  Girl  of  America 

as  he  came,  leaving  no  name  behind.  The  few  vil- 
lage folk  who  saw  these  visitors  said  they  looked 
like  preachers  or  lawyers.  Nobody  thought  of  them 
as  suitors.  For,  though  Miss  Smith  was  not  an 
unattractive  woman,  all  felt  that  her  strong  and 
reticent  life  would  never  be  shared  by  another  in 
marriage. 

The  life  led  in  Hatfield  by  this  New  England 
gentlewoman  has  been  interestingly  sketched  for  us 
by  one  who  knew  her  well.^  For  years  Austin 
Smith  and  a  sister  Harriet  lived  with  Sophia  in  the 
substantial  old  home  their  father  had  left  them. 
Austin  was  a  shrewd  man  of  business,  honest,  keen, 
and  upright  in  his  dealings.  Harriet  was  kind  and 
intelligent.  Both  sisters,  however,  were  economical 
in  their  habits,  and  quiet  and  reticent,  though  neigh- 
bourly. They  gave  for  charity  and  for  such  relig- 
ious purposes  as  came  within  the  scope  of  the  Hat- 
field church,  where  they  were  constant  attendants, 
but  they  never  made  large  gifts  or  revealed  any 
especial  interest  in  the  higher  education  of  women. 
That  was  Sophia's  secret.  The  sisters  were  quite 
deaf,  and  this  naturally  led  them  to  lives  of  thought 
and  retirement.  The  village  library,  not  large,  but 
of  choice  books,  offered  a  wide  range  of  study,  by 

*  Giles  B.  Stebbins  in  New  England  Magazine. 


Smith  College  7 

which  means  their  somewhat  Hmited  education  was 
broadened. 

"  About  twice  a  year,  however,  the  Smith  sisters 
made  a  party,  inviting  some  fifty  of  the  young  and 
middle-aged.  The  tall  wax  candles,  the  great  brass 
andirons,  the  bright  open  fires,  the  solid  mahogany 
furniture,  the  silver  tea-service,  the  old  china,  the 
fragrant  tea,  the  delicate  and  perfect  home-made 
biscuit  and  cake  of  these  occasions  all  gave  the 
fortunate  visitors  a  gracious  glimpse  of  old-time 
gentility.  Then,  once  a  year,  for  a  long  while,  the 
three  occupants  of  the  house  went  to  Saratoga  for 
a  few  weeks.  While  there  they  came  so  near  the 
fashionable  world,  in  equipage  and  dress,  as  to  say 
by  their  acts :  *  We  have  a  good  right  to  be  as 
brave  and  fine  as  you  are;  we  can  if  we  choose.' 
Thus  they  had  views  of  life  in  these  aspects,  and 
then  dropped  back  in  quiet  content  to  their  plain 
village  ways." 

Sophia  lived  longer  than  either  her  brother  or  her 
sister,  and  it  was  not  until  she  passed  away  in  1870, 
at  the  age  of  seventy-four,  that  the  secret  of  her  life 
became  known.  Her  estate,  appraised  at  $500,000, 
went  almost  entirely  to  the  college  for  which  she  had 
designed  it,  and  in  September,  1871,  the  first  build- 
ing acquired  by  Smith  was  purchased  at  a  cost  of 
$26,000,  and  at  the  same  time  a  committee  was 


8  The  College  Girl  of  America 

appointed  to  select  a  president.  The  building  in 
question  was  the  homestead  of  Judge  Dewey,  and 
it  is  still  on  the  grounds  of  Smith  College.  The 
president  chosen  was  Rev.  Lauremus  Clark  Seelye, 
LL.  D.,  and  he  still  holds  this  office.  It  was  not 
until  June  17,  1873,  however,  that  Professor  Seelye 
really  became  the  president.  He  declined  the  first 
offer,  because  of  the  inadequate  funds  then  at  the 
disposal  of  the  trustees. 

Very  carefully,  in  the  beginning,  as  ever  since, 
Mr.  Seelye  consulted  the  best  good  of  the  college 
he  was  to  organize.  After  a  survey  of  existing 
institutions  for  the  higher  education  of  women  in 
this  country  and  abroad,  and  consultation  with  the 
leading  educators  of  the  time,  he  determined  that 
the  college  should  have  no  preparatory  department 
connected  with  it,  and  should  be  on  a  par  intellectu- 
ally with  the  standard  colleges  for  men.  He  further 
decided  that  it  should  be  distinctively  a  college  for 
women,  a  place  where  girls  should  have  superior  op- 
portunities for  developing  and  perfecting  womanly 
characteristics.  Hitherto  no  college  for  women  had 
been  started  without  a  preparatory  department; 
none  had  required  Greek  for  entrance;  and  in  the 
majority  of  them,,  both  the  quantity  and  quality  of 
the  work  demanded  was  little  more,  and  often  less, 
than  that  accomplished  in  the  best  secondary  schools. 


Smith  College  9 

Even  Vassar,  the  only  existing  college  for  women 
worthy  of  the  name,  was  encumbered  with  a  large 
preparatory  department,  and  had  not  ordained  such 
entrance  requirements  as  obtained  in  the  best  col- 
leges for  men. 

Probably  there  could  not  have  been  found  in  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  country  a  man  better  fitted 
for  the  development  of  this  college  than  President 
Seelye.  Born  in  Bethel,  Connecticut,  September 
20,  1837,  he  was  graduated  from  Union  College 
when  scarcely  twenty.  A  period  of  study  at 
Andover  and  in  the  universities  of  Berlin  and 
Heidelberg  followed;  and  then  he  settled  down 
—  having  married  Henrietta  Sheldon  Chapin,  of 
Albany,  New  York  —  as  pastor  of  the  North  Con- 
gregational Church,  in  Springfield,  Massachusetts. 
Two  years  later,  however,  Mr.  Seelye  proceeded  to 
a  chair  at  Amherst  College,  where,  from  1865  until 
his  coming  to  Smith,  he  presided  over  the  depart- 
ments of  rhetoric  and  English  literature.  Birth, 
education,  and  experience  had  all  combined,  it  will 
be  observed,  to  make  this  head  of  Smith  College 
exactly  the  kind  of  man  the  founder  would  have 
chosen  for  the  place.  College  Hall,  the  first  aca- 
demic building,  was  finished  and  dedicated  July  14, 
1875 ;  and  the  president  was  then  formally  inaugu- 
rated into  the  office  which  he  had  practically  filled 


10  The  College  Girl  of  America 

for  two  years.  At  a  quarter  before  nine,  September 
9,  1875,  the  college  opened  at  morning  prayers  with 
four  residing  teachers  and  fourteen  students. 

It  required  some  strength  of  purpose  for  a  woman 
to  go  to  college  in  those  days,  and  the  girls  who 
went  to  Smith  at  its  opening  were  of  extraordinary 
mental  calibre,  as  well  as  the  daughters  of  refined 
homes,  where  good  breeding  and  high  social  ideals 
had  been  dominant.  The  same  thing  may  be  said 
about  the  girls  who  go  to  this  college  to-day.  For 
the  trustees  have  adhered  with  unwavering  fidelity 
to  the  ideal  they  set  at  the  beginning,  and  the  high 
standard  of  scholarship  and  womanliness  with  which 
Smith  began  its  life  has  never  been  lowered. 

The  first  thing  that  impresses  the  visitor  to 
Northampton  is  the  remarkable  good  looks  of  the 
Smith  College  girls,  who  practically  own  the  town 
from  September  till  the  last  of  June.  No  particular 
type  of  beauty  can  be  said  to  prevail,"  for  the  girls 
come,  and  always  have  come,  from  Maine  to  Cali- 
fornia and  Oregon.  But  one  reads  on  their  fine  open 
faces  that  the  majority  of  them  are  here,  not  to 
follow  a  fashion  nor  to  win  a  livelihood,  but 
"  to  become  intelligent  women  —  better  qualified  for 
whatever  time  or  eternity  may  bring."  The  rich  and 
the  poor  are  alike  welcome,  and  while  it  is  true  that 
many  wealthy  girls  go  each  year  to  Smith  College, 


Smith  College  ii 

it  is  likewise  true  that  there  are  always  dozens,  not 
to  say  scores,  of  girls  here  who  are  earning  their 
way,  and  exercising  great  self-denial  for  the  sake 
of  their  education.  No  discrimination  has  ever  been 
made  at  Smith  socially  or  academically  on  account 
of  money  or  its  lack.  There  are,  of  course,  expen- 
sive as  well  as  moderate  and  meagre  modes  of  liv- 
ing, for  the  college  does  not  oblige  a  girl  to  be  a 
resident  of  a  dormitory.  But  none  the  less  it  re- 
mains true  that  Smith  is  democratic,  just  as  its 
founder  desired  it  should  be.  Latterly,  too,  there 
has  been  a  tendency  to  bring  all  the  students  inside 
the  college  bounds,  and  to  this  end  a  number  of 
new  and  very  beautiful  dormitories  have  recently 
been  established.  Still  another  noticeable  and  in- 
teresting change  has  been  the  trend  from  a  majority 
of  women  teachers.  About  fifty  per  cent,  of  the 
faculty  are  now  men.  It  was  perhaps  as  a  return 
compliment  that  the  men  among  the  trustees  lately 
voted  to  admit  women  to  the  privileges  of  the  gov- 
erning body.  Tliree  alumnae  are  accordingly  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  at  the  present  time. 

At  Smith,  as  at  nearly  every  well-regulated 
woman's  college,  the  health  of  the  students  is  very 
carefully  supervised.  Almost  all  the  girls  take  daily 
exercise,  independent  of  favourable  weather  condi- 
tions.    Long  walks  and  mountain  climbs,  as  well 


12  The  College  Girl  of  America 

as  boating  on  near-by  Paradise,  and  early  morning 
canters  on  horseback  through  the  lovely  meadows 
of  the  Connecticut  Valley  are  favourite  diversions. 
In  gymnastic  v^ork  and  out-of-door  games  the  in- 
terest is  likewise  keen.  Aside  from  the  required 
exercises,  there  are  gymnastic  electives  for  the 
junior  and  senior  classes,  and  these  are  notably 
well  attended.  Yet  always  at  Smith  the  line  is 
drawn  on  the  side  of  good  taste.  Consequently, 
there  are  no  intercollegiate  athletic  contests  here. 
"  Valuable  as  such  contests  may  be  for  men,"  Pres- 
ident Seelye  has  said,  "  they  do  not  seem  suitable 
for  women,  and  no  benefit  is  likely  to  come  from 
them  which  would  justify  the  risks." 

In  its  well-equipped  gymnasium,  however,  class 
contests  in  basket-ball  and  other  games  are  greatly 
enjoyed  by  the  students.  Hockey,  too,  first  intro- 
duced into  American  colleges  by  Miss  Constance 
Applebee,  of  England,  has  been  very  cordially  re- 
ceived at  Smith,  and  there  is  no  pleasanter  sight 
to  be  met  with  on  the  campus  than  that  of  two 
rival  hockey  teams,  striving  with  all  the  strength 
and  skill  they  can  command  to  make  their  dif^cult 
goals. 

There  was  a  time  when  Smith  College  girls 
played  baseball,  after  supper,  in  trained  dresses,  but 
this   was   before   the    days    when   basket-ball   was 


Smith  College  13 

adopted.  Now  there  is  no  college  where  this  new 
and  splendidly  scientific  sport  for  women  is  pursued 
more  intelligently  than  at  Smith.  The  enthusiasm 
culminates  at  the  end  of  the  winter  term  with  the 
contest  between  the  two  lower  class  teams.  Al- 
though the  second  class,  with  its  year  more  of  prac- 
tice, generally  wins  on  this  occasion,  it  is  never  safe 
to  predict ;  and  the  audience  which  fills  the  running 
track  of  the  gymnasium  is  always  as  full  of  interest 
and  gay-coloured  excitement  as  cheers  and  banners 
can  express.  The  line-up,  before  this  game,  is 
one  of  the  characteristic  things  at  Smith,  fanciful 
legends  and  curious  banners  being  prominently  dis- 
played by  both  sides,  as  they  patiently  await,  for 
hours,  entrance  to  the  scene  of  the  contest.  Once 
in,  the  game  is  to  see  which  class  shall  get  its  mas- 
cot first  on  the  floor. 

Similar  enthusiasm  is  manifested  over  the  tennis 
tournament  held  every  spring.  This  event  calls  out 
friends  from  far  and  near,  the  back  campus  blos- 
soms with  ribbons  and  gay  gowns,  and  a  general 
good  time  is  always  enjoyed.  Each  class  has  its 
champions,  and  these  play  scientifically  and  well. 
Moreover,  the  visitor  rather  enjoys  being  waved 
back  into  place  by  the  coloured  wand  of  a  girl- 
beadle;  and  the  rows  of  bright  faces  and  flaring 
flags   against   the   background   of   river  and   hills 


14  The  College  Girl  of  America 

seldom  fail  to  impress.  At  the  apple-tree  entrance 
twenty-five  cents  a  head  is  demanded,  the  proceeds 
going  to  the  treasury  of  the  Athletic  Association, 
a  carefully  governed  body,  which  has  a  friendly 
oversight  over  the  boating  on  Paradise,  the  tramp- 
ing and  running  and  general  athletic  sports  of  the 
college. 

Every  October,  Smith  has  its  Mountain  Day, 
especially  set  apart  that  the  students  of  the  college 
may  become  very  familiar  in  the  course  of  their 
four  years  at  Northampton  with  the  famous  beauty 
of  that  part  of  the  Connecticut  Valley.  Tramps  to 
Mt.  Tom,  Holyoke,  Whately  Glen,  and  Sugar  Loaf 
are  also  indulged  in  as  the  months  roll  by,  some 
groups  of  undergraduate  enthusiasts  often  walking 
twenty  miles  in  an  afternoon. 

The  college  year  at  Smith  opens  with  an  im- 
promptu dance  known  as  the  Freshman  Frolic. 
Then,  in  October,  comes  the  reception  given  by  the 
sophomores  to  welcome  the  entering  class,  —  and 
incidentally  to  express  womanly  scorn  of  hazing. 
The  new  girl  is  escorted  to  this  freshman  festivity 
by  an  upper  class  partner,  who,  in  addition  to  filling 
out  her  dancing-card  and  sending  her  flowers,  sees 
that  she  meets  the  right  person  for  each  dance, 
entertains  her  during  refreshments,  and  "  sees  her 
home."     The  seriousness  with   which   the   whole 


Smith  College  15 

affair  is  taken  is  almost  comic.  For  the  invitations 
are  daintily  engraved,  and  the  girls  "  asked  out '' 
dress  with  the  greatest  possible  care.  The  escort- 
ing sophomore,  on  the  other  hand,  is  scrupulously 
polite  throughout  the  evening, .  obviously  realizing 
the  grave  responsibility  of  her  office.  A  dance  of 
the  same  sort  is  given  later  by  the  juniors,  as  a 
farewell  to  the  senior  class. 

The  scientific  teas  at  Smith  are  immensely  amus- 
ing and  original.  "  Perhaps  the  card  has  read,  *  A 
Chemico-physic  Afternoon.'  When  one  goes,  one 
finds  Lily  Hall  transformed  by  flowers.  The  ush- 
ers' wands  are  glass  rods  tied  with  ribbon;  coffee 
and  lemonade,  filtered  into  Florence  flasks,  are 
served  in  beakers,  and  drunk  through  glass  tubes; 
wafers  are  passed  in  crystallizing  dishes.  In  the 
hall  a  white-frocked  girl  may  be  seen  drawing  a 
wedding-march  from  a  harp  of  wooden  reeds.  Elec- 
tricity, meanwhile,  does  *  stunts '  in  the  dark- 
room." ^ 

Another  highly  important  annual  affair  at  Smith 
is  the  Junior  Prom,  now  held  each  year  in  the 
Students'  Building,  especially  decorated  for  the  oc- 
casion. During  the  afternoon  of  Prom  Day,  a  con- 
cert is  given  on  the  back  campus  by  the  glee,  banjo, 

■  Harriett  C.  Seelye  in  Century  Magazine. 


i6  The  College  Girl  of  America 

and  mandolin  clubs.  But  the  dancing  of  the  even- 
ing is  the  thing,  —  that  and  the  driving  next  day, 
with  one's  "  Prom  man."  Every  horse  within  five 
miles  of  Northampton  is  booked  months  ahead  for 
these  day-after-prom  drives. 

The  high-water  mark  of  social  diversion  is 
reached,  however,  in  the  senior  dramatics  which, 
each  spring,  usher  in  the  college's  Commencement 
festivities.  For  years  it  has  been  the  custom  to 
present  a  Shakespearian  play  at  this  time  under  the 
direction  of  a  member  of  the  faculty  and  of  a  pro- 
fessional coach.  These  plays  have  been  given  at  the 
Academy  of  Music,  Northampton,  with  every  possi- 
ble theatrical  advantage  in  the  way  of  scenery  and 
make-up.  The  costumes  are  usually  designed  by  a 
member  of  the  class,  and  for  the  colour  scheme  and 
scenery  another  senior  is  ordinarily  responsible. 
After  this  elaborate  fashion,  valuable  from  the 
intellectual  as  well  as  the  dramatic  viewpoint, 
"  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  "  was  given  in  1895 ; 
"As  You  Like  It"  in  1896;  "Merchant  of  Ven- 
ice" in  1897;  "Much  Ado  About  Nothing"  in 
1898;  "Winter's  Tale"  in  1899;  "Twelfth 
Night"  in  1900;  "The  Taming  of  the  Shrew" 
in  1901 ;  and  "Romeo  and  Juliet"  in  1902;  and 
"Love's  Labour's  Lost"  in  1903. 

The  earnest  spirit  and  serious  effort  that  go  into 


Smith  College  17 

these  senior  dramatics  have  never  failed  to  produce 
imposing  results.  In  last  year's  play  not  a  little  skill 
was  shown  in  making  the  text  fit  our  own  times. 
Without  discarding  anything  of  the  original,  the 
satire  was  made  to  possess  universal  human  appli- 
cation. The  scenes  were  given  practically  in  the 
order  of  the  folio  text,  with  suitable  cuts,  —  the 
death  of  the  father  of  the  princess  being  retained, 
however.  A  very  beautiful  pageant  at  the  close  of 
the  last  act  lent  to  the  performance  the  charm 
Smith  girls  so  well  understand  how  to  impart  to 
their  theatricals.  For  then  Spring  and  Winter  came 
on  in  chariots  drawn  by  four  graceful  maidens  clad 
consistently  with  the  seasons.  And  while  all  the 
characters  —  soldiers,  musicians,  and  so  on  —  were 
grouped  on  the  stage,  Miss  Frances  McCarroll,  of 
Brooklyn,  New  York,  as  Spring,  and  Miss  Alice 
Butterfield,  of  Brattleboro,  Vermont,  as  Winter, 
recited  the  charming  lines  which,  so  long  as  English 
Hterature  survives,  will  stand  as  the  most  beautiful 
poetic  characterizations  of  these  seasons.  How 
those  hundreds  of  daintily-gowned  girls  in  the  audi- 
ence applauded  the  lines  celebrating  the  month  — 

"  When  daisies  pied  and  violets  blue 
And  lady-smocks  all  silver  white 
And  cuckoo  buds  of  yellow  hue 
Do  paint  the  meadows  with  delight !  " 


i8  The  College  Girl  of  America 

an  exact  description,  as  they  one  and  all  recognized, 
of  the  fields  about  Northampton  at  that  very  time. 

The  senior  play  is  the  very  biggest  feature  of 
a  senior  year,  and  the  most  noticeable  of  all  Smith 
events  to  an  outsider.  To  the  girls  themselves  these 
theatricals  are  likewise  of  immense  interest  and  im- 
portance, not  only  because  of  the  careful  training 
in  voice  culture,  easy  bearings  and  intelligent  ap- 
preciation of  Shakespeare  they  entail,  but  also  be- 
cause of  the  delightful  comradeship  that  must  result 
from  v^eek  after  week  of  the  necessary  rehearsal. 

For  the  spring  of  1904  a  very  interesting  depar- 
ture was  taken,  for,  instead  of  a  Shakespearian 
play,  the  Hindoo  drama  ''  Sakuntala,"  by  Kalidasa, 
was  given.  This  work,  never  before  given  on  the 
American  stage,  is  the  masterpiece  of  India,  and 
ranks  high  in  the  literature  of  all  countries.  It  was 
first  translated  from  the  Sanskrit  in  1791,  and  soon 
after  was  produced  in  Germany.  It  has  been  given 
once  in  England,  and  is  being  widely  discussed  at 
the  present  time  by  dramatic  critics  all  over  this 
country.  The  acting  version,  used  at  Northampton, 
was  made  by  Miss  Alice  Morgan  Wright,  a  senior, 
after  carefully  studying  existing  translations,  and 
deciding  that  none  of  them  would  do.  Smith  girls, 
you  see,  accomplish  things  themselves  when  put  to 
it.    Last  spring-  they  erected  upon  the  lower  campus 


Smith  College  19 

a  students'  building  which  cost  about  $38,000. 
And  for  the  house-warming  —  and  to  swell  the 
fund  —  two  of  the  largest  societies  of  the  college, 
the  Alpha  and  the  Phi  Kappa  Psi,  presented  "  She 
Stoops  to  Conquer."  In  this  building  are  club- 
rooms  and  the  editorial  quarters  of  the  Smith  Col- 
lege Monthly,  the  excellent  literary  and  news  mag- 
azine of  the  college. 

Just  here,  because  it  gives  a  fair  idea  of  the  qual- 
ity of  this  magazine,  as  well  as  because  it  shows 
the  admirable  good  sense  of  the  representative 
Smith  College  girl,  I  want  to  quote  a  paragraph 
from  an  article  contributed  to  the  Monthly  of  May, 
1903,  by  Fannie  Stearns  Davis,  Smith,  1904.  The 
contribution  is  called  **  Against  the  Flirtatious  Short 
Story,"  and  begins :  "  I  desire  to  condemn  the 
average  sketch  of  a  love-story  produced  by  the 
average  college  girl.  I  desire  to  condemn  those 
clever  shapes  of  literary  whipped  cream'  and  spun 
silk  that  represent  the  literary  kisses  of  the  college 
love-tales.  ...  I  desire  to  condemn  such  love- 
stories  from  clever  beginning  to  inevitable  ending, 
for  three  very  excellent  but  possibly  personal  rea- 
sons: first,  because  they  bore  me;  second,  because 
I  believe  them  to  be  perfectly  untrue  to  a  reasonable 
sort  of  life;  third,  because,  after  due  consideration, 
I  cannot  arrive  at  a  sight  of  any  benefit  done  by 


20  The  College  Girl  of  America 

them  to  the  person  who  spins  the  shiny  cobweb  of 
them,  or  to  the  one  who  tumbles  through  the  thin- 
ness of  them.  .  .  .  Why  should  a  girl  cheapen  her 
self-respect  by  writing  of  the  ignoble  sides  of  things 
when  the  noble  is  perfectly  attainable?  To  demand 
solidity  and  sobriety  of  every  smallest  written  word 
were  a  demand  for  a  continual  church  attendance, 
and  as  unreasonable  as  that;  but  to  ask  for  a  thing 
not  utterly  transient,  not  threadbare  of  human  truth^ 
not  extolling  what  should  be  scorned;  to  ask  an 
underlying  nobility  of  motive  in  any  imagination 
of  the  mind  which  is  given  any  fixed  abiding-place 
by  means  of  ink  and  paper,  is  not  too  much  to  re- 
quire of  the  youngest  and  most  merrily  irresponsi- 
ble of  human  creatures." 

Now  it  is  just  that  sincerity  for  which  this  under- 
graduate here  earnestly  pleads  which  seems  to  me 
to  characterize  the  Smith  College  girl  generally. 
My  friend,  Miss  Elizabeth  McCracken,  in  writing 
of  this  trait,  has  called  it  "  sweet  gravity."  A 
stimulating  sense  that  the  college  girl  may  and 
should  do  something  fine  with  her  life  seems  ever 
present  in  the  minds  of  the  girls  here.  This  may 
very  well  be  the  result  of  the  high  Christian  spirit 
in  which  the  college  was  conceived  and  in  which 
it  has  always  been  conducted.  Attendance  at  chapel 
is  by  no  means  compulsory  at  Smith,  but  every 


Smith  College  21 

morning  the  large  hall  is  well  filled  with  worship- 
pers, and  no  visitor  who  has  been  privileged  to 
share  in  the  uplift  of  Sunday  vespers  ever  forgets 
the  experience.  Wearing  their  best  clothes  and 
shining  Sunday  faces,  the  girls  come  to  this  service 
in  groups  of  twos  and  threes,  after  an  afternoon 
of  writing  home,  and  they  listen  to  the  exhortations 
of  the  president,  and  join  in  the  singing  of  the 
hymns  with  an  earnest  reverence  distinctly  impres- 
sive. The  Christian  Association  has  a  secretary  of 
its  own  here  at  Smith,  and  in  a  quiet  way  much 
active  Christian  work  is  done  during  the  years  of 
a  college  course,  —  so  much  indeed  that  about 
twenty  per  cent,  of  the  girls  who  may  have  entered 
college  without  definite  Christian  affiliations  express 
themselves  upon  leaving  as  decidedly  interested  in 
one  or  another  of  the  church  bodies  in  Northampton. 
A  very  important  department  at  Smith  is  the 
Students'  Aid  Society,  which  has  now  been  estab- 
lished for  over  five  years,  and  is  of  constantly  in- 
creasing service  to  those  who  lack  the  means  to 
continue  their  education.  This  society  offers  loans 
without  interest  to  needy  and  worthy  students  of 
the  three  upper  classes,  allowing  them  three  to  five 
years  for  the  payment.  By  means  of  its  good  offices 
many  a  girl,  who  must  otherwise  have  left  college, 
has  been  enabled  to  stay  on  and  complete  her  edu- 


22  The  College  Girl  of  America 

cation.  There  are  more  scholarships,  too,  at  Smith 
than  at  many  colleges  of  equal  standing.  Last  year 
about  seventy-five  hundred  dollars  in  sums  of  fifty 
dollars  was  available  for  help  in  this  direction.  Of 
Smith's  fine  buildings  pages  might  easily  be  written. 
With  its  mlusic-hall,  its  art-gallery,  its  observatory, 
its  plant  house,  its  alumnae  gymnasium  (with  swim- 
ming tank),  and  its  fine  library,  it  has,  of  course, 
every  equipment  for  a  modern  and  complete  educa- 
tion. Its  tuition,  too,  is  low,  —  only  one  hundred 
dollars,  —  while  the  charge  for  board  and  a  fur- 
nished room  in  any  one  of  the  fifteen  or  so  college 
houses  is  but  three  hundred  dollars  a  year.  And 
even  the  rich  girls,  it  is  worth  while  to  note,  live 
in  these  three-hundred-a-year  cottage  homes. 

Not  long  ago  a  very  handsome  building,  named 
Plymouth  Hall,  was  erected  just  outside  the  campus. 
It  was  —  and  is  —  a  pile  of  masonry  as  far  as  pos- 
sible removed  in  spirit  from  its  good  old  Puritan 
name.  "  It  conveys  the  impression,"  as  a  bright 
girl  has  said,  "  of  having  wandered  to  Northampton 
from  New  York's  Fifth  Avenue  or  Boston's  Back 
Bay."  It  has  to  recommend  it,  however,  all  the 
modem  conveniences,  from  steam  heat  and  electric 
lights  to  an  elevator  presided  over  by  a  boy  in 
buttons.  There  is  even  a  tradition  that  the  girls 
living  here  always  wear  evening  gowns  for  dinner ! 


Smith  College  23 

But  Plymouth  Hall  is  not  succeeding  as  its  promot- 
ers believed  it  would.  The  girls  who  could  afford 
to  live  here  soon  came  to  realize  that  for  all  this 
paraphernalia  of  hotel  existence  they  would  be  sac- 
rificing something  very  much  more  precious.  And 
since  no  college  girl  wishes  to  get  out  of  touch  with 
the  democratic  spirit  for  which  American  colleges 
stand,  Plymouth  Hall  bids  fair  to  become  an  awk- 
ward white  elephant  on  the  hands  of  Northampton 
real  estate  men.  The  real  Smith  dormitories  are 
wonderfully  attractive  and  homelike,  presenting 
more  the  appearance  of  a  group  of  well-kept  dwell- 
ings than  of  a  seat  of  learning. 

The  actual  flavour  of  the  place  one  can  taste  only 
by  repeated  visits  to  Northampton.  Here  we  find 
the  unique  spectacle  of  a  college  woman's  town. 
Smith  has  given  to  its  students  large  personal  lib- 
erty, and  Northampton  fully  appreciates  the  reflex 
privilege  this  implies.  On  all  sides,  therefore,  it 
makes  ingenuous  bids  for  student  patronage.  Even 
the  upholsterer  near  the  campus  drops  into  poetry. 
As  witness: 

"  Halt !  you  maidens,  and  attention  bestow 
To  this  little  shop  of  mine. 
If  ever  you  find  your  furniture  cracked, 
Or  if  you've  got  any  that'll  have  to  be  packed, 
Why !  that  is  right  in  my  line." 


24  The  College  Girl  of  America 

A  Smith  girl  might  do  almost  anything  in  North- 
ampton, and  the  townspeople  would  smile  indul- 
gently; but  as  a  matter  of  fact  she  never  does  do 
anything  in  the  least  inconsiderate  or  discourteous 
or  overbearing.  Wearing  a  pretty  white  gown  — 
even  in  winter  —  she  comes  often  in  the  early 
evening  to  enjoy  the  good  things  one  of  the  leading 
restaurants  provides  for  her  and  for  her  sisters ;  but 
she  is  never  unpleasantly  pervasive,  even  at  Boy- 
den's.  Not  only  does  it  seem  to  be  true  at  North- 
ampton that  a  Smith  girl  can  do  no  wrong,  but 
also  that  a  Smith  girl  does  do  no  wrong.  She 
enjoys  the  finest  kind  of  liberty  because  she  has 
shown  that  she  knows  how  to  enjoy  it. 

In  the  same  way  there  is  at  Smith  nothing  of 
the  traditional  antagonism  between  the  students  and 
their  teachers.  At  the  Academy  of  Music  one  even- 
ing this  spring,  I  looked  very  hard  and  long  at  a 
body  of  Smith  girls,  to  discover  which  of  the  group 
could  be  the  chaperon.  I  did  not  find  her.  But  I 
know  she  was  there.  In  dress  and  bearing  she  was, 
however,  just  one  of  the  girls  for  the  time  being, 
enjoying  the  play,  as  they  were,  with  simple,  de- 
lightful, well-bred  enthusiasm.  Smith's  women  in- 
structors are  all  like  that,  which  may  in  a  way 
account  —  don't  you  think  ?  —  for  the  fine,  sane 
womanliness  of  the  Smith  girl. 


Smith  College  25 

No  one  ever  accused  a  Smith  girl  of  being  dull, 
however.  She,  of  all  persons,  knows  thoroughly 
how  to  have  a  good  time  while  living  her  under- 
graduate life.  Naturally  there  are  as  many  kinds 
of  good  times  as  there  are  girls.  The  Smith  stu- 
dent may  take  part  in  bazaars,  tableaux,  and  plays 
for  churches  and  city  charities ;  she  may  do  regular 
work  in  the  Home  Culture  clubs  (founded  by 
George  W.  Cable)  ;  she  may  sing  to  forlorn  old 
women  in  hospitals;  visit  her  friends  in  near-by 
towns;  witness  a  performance  by  Nance  O'Neil, 
Irving,  the  Ben  Greet  Company,  or  Mrs.  Fiske,  at 
the  Academy;  watch  the  football  struggle  between 
Harvard  and  Yale ;  attend  junior  "  proms "  at 
neighbouring  colleges;  or  just  stay  inside  the 
Smith  campus  and  study  —  as  she  pleases. 

Or  she  may  work  almost  all  night  for  the  sake  of 
attending  college  by  day.  One  girl  is  noted  for  the 
stylish  shirt-waists  she  makes;  another  for  her 
clever  newspaper  articles.  Many,  very  many,  take 
excellent  pictures,  which  they  sell  to  their  fellow 
students  at  astonishingly  low  prices;  two  of  whom 
I  know  teach  dancing  classes.  One  student  has, 
throughout  her  course,  earned  her  travelling  ex- 
penses, and  fat  checks  besides,  by  acting  as  the 
agent  of  a  certain  Western  railroad,  when  Easter 
and  Christmas  vacations  are  being  planned.    What- 


26  The  College  Girl  of  America 

ever  honest  means  a  college  girl  may  adopt  to  help 
her  to  bear  student  expenses,  she  will  not  cease  on 
that  account  to  be  respected  by  her  college  mates. 

A  recent  writer  in  one  of  the  Chicago  papers  has 
spoken  at  some  length  of  the  "  ignominy  "  suffered 
by  a  girl  of  limited  means  at  college.  If  what  the 
writer  says  were  true,  it  would  indicate  a  change 
for  the  worse  in  women's  colleges  within  the  past 
few  years,  —  a  change,  however,  which  I  feel  sure 
has  not  come  about.     Says  the  article  in  question: 

"  The  woman  who  would  win  her  own  way 
through  college  has  something  more  to  contend  with 
than  a  man.  First,  she  has  the  ignominy  of  it  to 
suffer.  Yes,  the  ignominy  and  the  shame.  For  nine 
women  out  of  ten  in  a  college  community,  with  loose 
purse-strings,  look  down  with  an  air  of  contemptible 
patronage  on  her  who  has  no  purse-strings  at  all. 
Her  plain  clothes,  her  indefatigable  industry,  her 
poverty,  all  tend  to  ostracize  her  from  the  so-called 
*  smart '  set,  and  to  set  her  apart  with  only  one 
or  two  friends,  or  no  friends  at  all.  She  is  not 
asked  to  join  the  fashionable  clubs;  she  is  never 
permitted  to  lead;  she  is  rarely  elected  to  office; 
she  is  looked  upon  as  a  nonentity,  without  position 
or  prestige." 

It  is,  of  course,  barely  possible  that  in  the  demo- 
cratic West  "  ignominy ''  must  be  endured  by  the 


Smith  College  27 

college  girl  of  small  means.  Where  fortunes  are 
made  in  an  hour,  and  a  girl  whose  father  was  last 
year  behind  the  counter  in  his  own  small  shop,  to- 
day flaunts  an  automobile  and  is  styled  a  merchant 
prince,  snobbery  must  be  expected.  In  our  Eastern 
colleges,  however,  quite  a  different  spirit  exists. 
Poverty  of  genial  friendliness,  poverty  of  warm- 
heartedness, poverty  of  brains,  may  be  condemned, 
—  pecuniary  poverty,  never. 

That  nine  women  out  of  every  ten  in  a  college 
community  with  loose  purse-strings  look  down  with 
an  air  of  contemptible  patronage  on  her  who  has 
no  purse-strings  at  all  is  utterly  absurd.  In  the 
first  place  the  "  nine  out  of  every  ten  "  have  them- 
selves "  no  purse-strings  at  all."  Rich  girls  do  not 
yet  go  to  college  in  any  great  numbers,  and  the 
few  who  do  show  by  the  mere  fact  of  their  being 
there  that  better  things  than  purse-strings  or  a  lack 
of  them  are  their  concern.  Smith  is  almost  the 
only  college  where  girls  of  large  means  are  to  be 
found  at  all,  and  the  sweetness  and  generosity  which 
is  the  attitude  of  mind  of  these  girls  toward  those 
who  are  poorer  than  themselves  is  notorious.  Very 
many  actual  cases  could  be  pointed  out  where  rich 
girls  have  quietly  and  unostentatiously  given  pe- 
cuniary aid  to  their  fellow  students  of  small  means. 

"  The  so-called  *  smart '  set !  "     Let  those  who 


28  The  College  Girl  of  America 

would  bring  that  phrase  into  the  vocabulary  of 
college  life  be  covered  with  confusion.  Is  it  not 
bad  enough  to  have  a  "  smart  set "  staring  one 
impudently  in  the  face  from  every  page  of  modern 
journalism  and  from  the  ubiquitous  ''  society  novel," 
without  dragging  it  in  where  it  has  no  right  to 
exist  and  does  not  exist?  "  Plain  clothes,"  we  ven- 
ture to  assert,  never  yet,  in  a  New  England  college, 
ostracized  a  girl.  As  for  ''  indefatigable  industry!  " 
Well,  —  "  that's  another  story,"  as  Kipling  would 
say. 

The  "  grind  "  is  not  popular  among  the  girls  of 
any  college  set,  and  since  like  seeks  like,  her  friends 
are  ordinarily  "  grinds  "  like  herself,  —  creatures 
apart  from  any  set.  More  and  more  every  year 
are  girls  coming  to  realize  that  Newman's  "  Idea 
of  a  University  "  is  the  right  one.  The  scholarly 
cardinal,  it  will  be  remembered,  strenuously  opposed 
the  notion  that  a  university  is  a  professional  school, 
and  vigorously  maintained  that  it  should  always  be 
held  a  training-school  for  the  development  of  the 
all-around  student.  When  girls  began  to  go  to  col- 
lege, they  went  very  largely  with  a  definite  idea  of 
fitting  for  the  profession  of  teacher.  This  is  not 
yet  changed  so  much  as  it  should  be,  but  it  is,  never- 
theless, modified  in  some  measure,  so  that  nowadays 
there  are  comparatively   few  girls   who  graduate 


Smith  College  29 

from  college  without  a  considerable  development 
in  the  way  of  intellectual  breadth.  Yet  in  any 
college  having  a  share  of  the  elective  system,  it  will 
readily  be  seen  that  an  omnivorous  devourer  of 
Greek,  for  instance,  could  pursue  her  thirst  for 
abnormal  development  in  that  direction  unhindered. 
She  would  desire  to  study,  and  she  would  be  allowed 
to  study.  A  "  grind  "  is  not  very  interesting,  so- 
cially, and  she  generally  is  let  alone.  Not,  how- 
ever, because  she  is  poor  would  this  come  about. 
A  rich  ''  grind  "  is  an  anomaly,  but  not  an  impossi- 
bility. Poor  "  grinds  "  do  not  care  for  society,  and 
society  does  not  care  for  them. 

The  one  sin  which  college  girls  do  not  pardon 
is  stupidity.  By  this  is  meant  not  simply  a  lack  of 
pronounced  brilliancy  in  scholarship,  —  many  very 
popular  girls,  both  rich  and  poor,  have  that,  —  but 
a  lack  of  all  the  qualities  which  go  to  make  up  an 
interesting  personality.  A  poor  girl  may  be  clever 
at  theatricals,  a  pleasing  singer,  a  brilliant  student, 
an  original  talker,  a  fascinating  beauty^  or  only  a 
lovable,  womanly  young  woman,  and  have  friends 
galore,  invitations  galore,  and  hold  office,  too,  in 
leading  clubs. 

But  just  as  exception  has  been  taken  to  the 
phrase  "  smart  set,"  I  would  protest  against  the 
use  of  the  adjective  "  fashionable,"  in  connection 


30  The  College  Girl  of  America 

with  a  college  club.  Similarity  of  intellectual  inter- 
ests, social  interests,  or  human  interests  is  the  only 
reason  for  the  existence  of  college  clubs.  When  the 
snobbery  of  the  society  world  exercises  any  potent 
influence  upon  the  life  of  college  girls,  it  will  be 
time  enough  to  talk  of  the  ignominy  of  poverty. 
Such  a  day  has  not  yet  come,  and,  let  us  hope,  it 
never  will.  The  college  girl  who  works  her  way 
through  her  alma  mater  always  receives  the  respect 
due  her  from  her  better-conditioned  sisters.  If  she 
has  a  personality  which  in  outside  life  would  win 
her  social  position  and  the  affection  of  friends,  she 
is,  of  course,  popular  in  college  —  even  in  Smith 
College. 


A    WELLESLEV    GIRL. 


WELLESLEY    COLLEGE 

Wellesley,  the  "  College  Beautiful,"  is  the  ex^^ 
quisite  prcwluct  of  a  poet's  lovely  thought.     To  say- 
that  Wellesley  is  a  poem  were  hardly  to  put  the/^ 
thing  too  strongly,  founded  as  the  institution  was, 
in  memory  of  a  poet's  dead  child,  as  testimony  to 
a  poet's  faith  in  a  kind  and  gracious  God. 

Just  fifty  years  ago  Henry  Welles  Smith,  a  rising 
young  lawyer  of  Boston,  —  who  was  later  to  take 
the  name  of  Henry  Fowle  Durant,  because  he  was 
being  constantly  confounded  with  a  neighbouring 
business  man  who  bore  his  own  name,  —  married 
Pauline  Fowle,  his  cousin,  and  the  daughter  of  a 
gallant  soldier.  The  young  couple  lived  for  a  time 
in  Boston,  but  the  year  after  their  marriage  pur- 
chased the  Wellesley  estate.  Here,  in  a  rambling 
farmhouse,  it  was  the  Durants'  custom  to  spend 
the  summers  enjoying  the  delights  of  country  life. 
And  here,  in  1855,  their  child  was  bom,  a  lovely 
boy,  who  was  the  pride  and  delight  of  both. 

Yet  It  was  not  ordained  that  this  Henry  Durant 
should  grow  to  manhood,  for  when  he  was  but  eight 

3X 


32  The  College  Girl  of  America 

he  slipped  away  under  a  trying  illness.  While  his 
little  boy  was  hovering  between  life  and  death,  and 
he  did  not  yet  know  what  would  be  the  issue  of  the 
illness,  the  clever  lawyer,  his  father,  saw  clearly 
that  he  had  a  duty  to  God  which  he  had  never  fully 
discharged,  and  he  resolved,  whether  his  son  were 
spared  or  not,  to  devote  himself  and  all  his  posses- 
sions to  the  highest  ends.  The  little  heir  was  taken 
away,  but  in  the  keenness  of  his  sorrow,  Henry 
Durant  accepted  the  loss  in  the  higher  sense  of 
discipline  and  determined  to  put  into  a  consecrated 
life  the  same  earnestness  which  he  had  hitherto 
put  into  a  worldly  one. 

The  secret  of  Mr.  Durant's  success  at  the  bar 
had  been  a  certain  intensity  which  enabled  him 
to  influence  others  by  giving  his  whole  strength 
to  any  case  he  had  undertaken.  This  intensity  now 
spent  itself  in  a  different  direction.  It  was  devoted 
to  the  service  of  Christ.  He  became  a  lay  preacher, 
and  laboured  the  rest  of  his  life  to  win  to  a  religious 
state  many  who  had  been  heretofore  careless  and 
indifferent  toward  heavenly  things. 

How  ardently  his  wife  must  have  shared  in  the 
new  interest  that  had  come  into  his  life  can  be 
appreciated  more  fully  after  we  have  traced  some^ 
what  the  family  of  this  surviving  founder  of 
Wellesley  College.     Her  mother's  family  bore  the 


Wellesley  College  33 

name  of  De  Cazenove,  honourably  known  in  France 
for  nearly  one  thousand  years  previous  to  the 
Huguenot  persecution.  Their  rank  was  that  of 
marquis,  but  when  the  men  of  the  family  emigrated 
to  Geneva  for  religious  liberty,  and  determined  to 
enter  upon  a  business  career,  they  thought  it  fitting 
to  drop  titles.  In  the  little  republic  of  Geneva  (then 
not  one  of  the  cantons  of  Switzerland)  the  Caze- 
noves  soon  distinguished  themselves  by  their  pro- 
bity, intelligence,  and  refinement,  no  less  than  by 
reason  of  their  acuteness  in  the  business  of  finance, 
which  they  elected  to  follow.  But  religious  and 
political  feeling  ran  high,  and  during  the  Jacobin 
revolution  Mrs.  Durant's  grandfather  was  seized 
by  the  mob  and  thrown  into  prison.  As  soon  as 
he  was  recognized,  however,  he  was  permitted  by 
the  revolutionary  tribunal  to  return  to  his  family, 
and  two  nights  afterward,  by  the  advice  of  his 
father,  he  and  his  brother  made  their  escape  from 
the  country  and  emigrated  for  America  by  way 
of  Hamburg. 

These  gallant  young  Frenchmen  landed  in  Phila- 
delphia in  November,  1794.  Here  they  soon  met 
two  beautiful  sisters,  whom  they  married.  The 
lady  who  was  to  become  Mrs.  Durant's  grandmother 
seems  to  have  been  possessed  of  remarkable  learning 
and  culture  for  her  time,  for  she  was  a  Latin  and 


34  The  College  Girl  of  America 

French  scholar  of  parts.  Her  husband  rapidly 
attained  marked  success  in  business.  Associating 
himself  with  some  gentlemen  of  kindred  interests, 
he  purchased  a  tract  of  land  at  the  mouth  of 
George's "  Creek,  in  Fayette  County,  Pennsylvania, 
where  the  partners  founded  the  town  of  New 
Geneva,  established  stores,  built  mills,  and  set  up 
glass-works.  John  Jacob  Astor,  perceiving  young 
Cazenove's  remarkable  business  ability,  offered  him 
a  partnership  in  his  great  fur  venture,  but  this  the 
youth  refused,  preferring  to  try  his  fortunes  in  a 
shipping  concern,  for  which  purpose  he  removed  to 
Alexandria,  Virginia. 

Five  sons  and  five  daughters  came  in  the  course 
of  years  to  the  Cazenove  household,  and  one  of  these, 
Pauline,  while  on  a  visit  to  Boston  in  the  autumn 
of  1826,  met  Major  Fowle  of  Watertown,  at  that 
time  in  the  regular  United  States  army. 

The  Fowles  of  Watertown  were  of  English 
descent,  and  as  interesting  a  family  in  their  own 
way  as  even  the  Cazenoves.  The  father.  Captain 
John,  had  done  good  service  in  the  war  of  the  revo- 
lution, and  he  and  his  wife  were  reputed  at  the 
time  of  their  marriage  to  be  the  handsomest  bride 
and  groom  Newton  had  ever  known.  Their  eight 
children,  especially  the  daughters,  were  far-famed 
for  their  loveliness,  and  it  is  said  that  when  the  girls 


Wellesley  College  35 

were  sewing  or  reading  by  the  window  at  early 
even  their  father  would  frequently  steal  out  to 
shield  his  Three  Graces  from  the  glances  of  the 
youths  of  the  place. 

Robert  Treat  Paine,  apropos  of  these  beauteous 
maids,  composed  a  toast  that  was  long  famed  in  the 
countryside : 

"  To  the  fair  of  every  town 
And  the  Fowle  of  Watertown," 

and  this  was  wont  to  be  drunk  reverently,  all  stand- 
ing, by  the  gallants  of  the  period. 

Harriet,  the  most  intellectual  of  these  maids, 
married  a  young  lawyer  by  the  name  of  Smith,  and 
went  with  her  husband  to  live  in  Hanover,  N.  H. ; 
it  was  here,  Feb.  20,  1822,  that  she  gave  birth  to  the 
child  who  was  afterward  to  found  Wellesley  College, 
Henry  Welles  Smith,  who  changed  his  name  to 
Henry  Fowle  Durant  because  his  own  patronymic 
was  annoyingly  like  that  of  another  man. 

The  brother  of  the  Three  Graces,  the  soldier  who 
won  Pauline  Cazenove  as  his  bride,  was  not  in  his 
first  youth  at  the  time  of  this  wedding,  having 
reached  indeed  twoscore  years  when  he  met  his 
beloved.  He  had  served  in  the  war  of  18 12  in  New 
York,  and  had  taken  part  with  that  illustrious  corps 
known  as  Scott's  brigade  in  the  Niagara  campaign, 


36  The  College  Girl  of  America 

remaining  at  the  head  of  his  company  through  the 
battle  of  Lundy's  Lane,  regardless  of  the  wound 
he  had  received  early  in  the  action.  Later  he  served 
in  the  Indian  wars  on  the  frontier. 

Major  Fowle  was  a  man  of  the  greatest  integrity, 
and  was  nicknamed  Honest  Jack  in  his  regiment. 
So  fine  and  high  was  his  sense  of  responsibility  for 
others  that  he  abandoned  card  playing  (which  at 
home  had  been  a  favourite  recreation  of  the  family 
circle)  because  he  had  noticed  the  demoralizing 
effect  of  this  practice  on  his  men. 

As  a  lover,  the  major  seems  to  have  been  ideal. 
A  sister  of  his  betrothed  called  him  "  the  most 
thoughtful  and  considerate  man  for  one  in  love  I 
ever  knew."  And  her  friends  agreed  that  "  since 
the  creation  of  the  world  no  lover  was  ever  half  so 
attentive  and  agreeable  as  the  major." 

The  union  of  the  major  and  his  bride  was  cele- 
brated in  May,  183 1,  and  on  June  13th  of  the  follow- 
ing year,  Pauline  Fowle  (Mrs.  Durant)  was  born 
in  Alexandria.  Even  while  an  infant  she  journeyed 
much  with  her  parents  from  one  army  post  to  an- 
other. In  the  spring  of  1833,  we  learn.  Major 
Fowle  was  ordered  to  Fort  Dearborn,  Chicago,  and 
from  his  evangelistic  efforts  in  a  not  inappropriate 
carpenter  shop  there  sprang  what  was  afterward 
the  first  church  in  Chicago.     An  appointment  as 


Wellesley  College  37 

instructor  of  tactics  and  as  commandant  of  the  corps 
of  cadets  at  West  Point  soon  followed,  and  in  the 
fascinating  army  life  of  this  military  academy  on  the 
Hudson  little  Pauline  passed  five  years  of  her  early 
childhood. 

The  little  girl  was  early  trained  in  all  womanly 
arts,  and  when  her  father  was  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  lieutenant-colonel  and  ordered  to  the  command  of 
his  regiment  in  the  Seminole  Indian  wars,  he  car- 
ried with  him  a  pretty  hussy,  laboriously  fashioned 
by  his  daughter's  childish  fingers.  This  gift  was 
the  last  one  he  ever  received  from  Pauline.  For, 
having  placed  his  family  temporarily  in  Alexandria, 
he  embarked  at  Wheeling,  Virginia,  on  the  steam- 
boat Moselle,  on  which  he  lost  his  life  April  25, 
1838.  The  boat  had  been  urged  beyond  her  power, 
and  at  Cincinnati  the  boiler  burst.  In  the  river  near 
Madison,  Indiana,  one  hundred  miles  down-stream, 
the  soldier's  body  was  recovered  May  13,  1838,  and 
there  he  was  buried  with  the  honours  of  war.  In 
remembrance  of  this,  Mrs.  Durant,  a  few  years  ago, 
gave  the  town  a  check  of  $5,000  for  the  benefit  of  the 
King's  Daughters  Hospital,  now  doing  a  very 
valuable  service  in  that  community.  Naturally,  the 
blow  was  a  terrible  one  to  Mrs.  Fowle.  Pauline, 
then  only  a  child  of  six,  was  forced  to  attend  to 
nearly  everything,  for  her  mother  was  utterly  pros- 


38  The  College  Girl  of  America 

trated  by  the  shock  of  her  husband's  loss.  The  little 
girl  was  only  eight  years  old  when  she  first  met  her 
cousin  Henry,  then  a  student  in  Harvard.  But  she 
soon  grew  up,  and  while  he  was  attending  the  law 
school,  being  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  making  his 
way  as  a  young  attorney,  she  was  being  carefully 
educated  for  the  place  she  was  later  to  fill  so  splen- 
didly. 

As  has  been  said,  young  Durant  was  a  poet.  Dur- 
ing his  courtship  he  penned  many  lines  which 
showed  his  skill  as  a  rhymester.  Wellesley  College 
was,  however,  to  be  the  epic  of  his  life.  He  had 
made  a  fortune  in  the  law,  and  this  he  wished  to 
surrender  as  a  gift  to  God.  From  1863  onward, 
therefore,  he  was  considering  how  best  it  could  be 
done.  Finally,  the  thought  took  shape.  "  Wouldn't 
you  like  to  consecrate  these  Wellesley  grounds,  this 
place  that  was  to  have  been  Harry's,  to  some  special 
work  for  God?  "  he  asked  his  wife,  one  day,  and, 
receiving  her  joyful  affirmative,  the  planning  for 
Wellesley  was  begun.  In  a  letter  written  to  her  in 
1867,  he  said :  "  The  great  object  we  have  in  view 
is  the  appropriation  and  consecration  of  our  country- 
place  and  other  property  to  the  service  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  by  erecting  a  seminary." 

In  September,  1875,  the  original  Wellesley  build- 
ings, erected  at  a  cost  of  $1,000,000,  were  opened 


Wellesley  College  39 

by  the  Durants  in  their  beautiful  park  of  three  hun- 
dred acres,  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Waban.  Years 
before,  it  is  interesting  here  to  note,  a  famous  Boston 
physician,  who  had  instituted  careful  research  to 
ascertain  the  most  healthful  town  in  Massachusetts, 
decided  in  favour  of  Wellesley. 

When  the  main  building  was  erected  it  was 
thought  to  be  absurdly  large,  because  it  offered 
accommodations  for  three  hundred  students.  Now 
there  are  nine  hundred  and  seventy-eight  girls  in 
the  college,  with  fourteen  professors,  twenty-three 
assistant  professors,  and  fifty- four  instructors.  And 
from  the  main  building  with  which  the  college 
started  has  sprung  the  large  group  of  buildings  now 
scattered  about  what  was  originally  the  Durant  Park. 
Eleven  dormitories  —  three  halls  and  eight  cottages 
—  are  this  year  in  use,  besides  the  recently  erected 
Noanett  House  in  the  village,  rented  by  the  college 
for  a  student  home,  and  the  Wellesley  Inn,  incor- 
porated and  conducted  by  Wellesley  graduates, 
which  likewise  has  its  little  family  of  students.  All 
the  cottages  on  the  grounds  are  connected  with 
College  Hall  by  a  telephone  system,  and  nearly  all 
are  heated  from  the  fine  new  heating  plant  for  which 
Mr.  Rockefeller  contributed  $150,000.  Mention 
might  as  well  be  made  here  of  the  extremely  low 
price  of  board  and  tuition  at  this  institution.     For 


40  The  College  Girl  of  America 

the  former  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  a 
year,  and  for  the  latter  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  dollars  is  required.  This  prevails  whether  a 
girl  lives  in  College  Hall,  as  the  majority  of  fresh- 
men do,  or  in  one  of  the  charming  co.ttages,  the 
cherished  homes  of  upper  class  girls. 

College  Hall,  with  its  palm-filled  rotunda,  has 
been  compared  to  an  immense  hotel.  Three  hun- 
dred people  can  be  accommodated  here,  and  there  is 
a  telegraph  and  telephone  office,  a  book  store,  a 
library,  and  a  natural  history  museum,  as  well  as 
many  executive  offices  under  its  huge  roof,  which, 
from  end  to  end,  covers  an  eighth  of  a  mile.  Noan- 
ett  House,  the  latest  of  the  dormitories,  is  named 
after  the  Indian  king  who  was  the  friend  of  John 
Eliot,  and  is  the  second  cottage  to  recognize  in  its 
distinctive  title  early  American  history.  The  first 
was  Norumbega,  so  named  in  honour  of  Professor 
Horsford's  historical  city. 

The  opening  of  Norumbega  was  very  interesting, 
for  Miss  Freeman  (the  late  Mrs.  Alice  Freeman 
Palmer),  who  was  then  president  of  the  college,  had 
asked  the  poet  Whittier  to  be  present  on  that  occa- 
sion. In  reply  he  sent  a  letter,  now  framed  and 
hanging  over  the  mantel  of  this  charming  students' 
home,  enclosing  the  following  poem  entitled  "  Nor- 
umbega " : 


Wellesley  College  41 

**  Not  on  Penobscot's  wooded  bank  the  spires 
Of  the  sought  city  rose,  nor  yet  beside 
The  winding  Charles,  nor  where  the  daily  tide 

Of  Naumkeag's  haven  rises  and  retires 

The  vision  tarried ;  but  somewhere  we  knew 
The  beautiful  gates  must  open  to  our  quest, 
Somewhere  that  wondrous  city  of  the  West 

Would  lift  its  towers  and  palace  domes  in  view ; 

And  lo  !  at  last  its  mystery  is  made  known, 
Its  only  dwellers  maidens  fair  and  young, 
Its  princess  such  as  England's  laureate  sung; 

And  safe  from  capture,  save  by  love  alone, 
It  lends  its  beauty  to  the  lake's  green  shore 
And  Norumbega  is  a  myth  no  more." 


One  of  the  first  questions  asked  by  people  who 
are  interested  in  the  student  Hfe  of  girls  at  any  col- 
lege is,  "  How  are  the  young  women  governed  ? 
How  much  liberty  do  they  have  ?  "  At  Wellesley 
this  query  might  be  answered  by  saying  that  the  girls 
are  subjected  only  to  such  rules  as  would  naturally 
govern  the  action  of  any  well-bred  girl.  A  student 
does  not,  of  course,  come  to  town  in  the  evening, 
or  go  anywhere  else  where  a  chaperon  would  be 
required,  without  having  some  older  person  with  her. 
But  she  can  ask  her  friends  out  to  Wellesley  to  play 
golf  or  tennis,  or  go  boating,  and  she  does  it,  too, 
whenever  her  studies  and  the  general  scheme  of 
things  make  it  possible.  Very  largely,  nowadays, 
the  students  of  Wellesley  College  are  self-governing 


42  The  College  Girl  of  America 

by  virtue  of  an  "  agreement  between  the  faculty  and 
students/'  in  which  certain  matters  of  every-day 
conduct  are  relegated  entirely  to  the  control  of  the 
girls  themselves. 

It  is,  of  course,  by  a  college's  graduates  that  its 
work  is  best  known,  and  by  them  alone  can  it  be 
fairly  judged.  Thus  the  quality  of  Wellesley  Col- 
lege training  may  perhaps  be  best  hinted  at  by  citing 
two  instances  —  not  wholly  apocryphal  —  of  girls 
who  needed  its  blessings. 

The  stories  I  am  about  to  relate  were  told  me  by  a 
friend,  who  is  not  herself  a  college  woman,  in  reply 
to  a  chance  observation  of  mine  that  the  best  college 
is  the  one  which  a  girl  can  attend  without  leaving 
home. 

"  That  may  be  true  sometimes,"  my  friend  in- 
stantly replied.  "  But  there  are  cases,  many  of  them 
in  America,  where  a  mother  does  her  whole  duty  to 
her  child  only  when  she  sends  her  quite  away  from 
home.  If  the  girl  has  been  accustomed  to  luxury,  the 
college  life  teaches  the  difference  between  real  worth 
and  mere  ostentation.  And  if  she  has  lacked  at 
home  the  amenities  many  very  good  homes  are 
wholly  without,  she  will  learn  at  college  how  to  bear 
herself  gently.  What  if  the  acquirement  of  better 
manners  and  higher  home  ideals  on  the  part  of  the 
girl  does  make  it  hard  for  her  to  adjust  herself. 


Wellesley  College  43 

when  she  comes  back  from  her  college  life,  and  does 
create  a  breach  between  her  mother  and  herself. 
There  has  got  to  be  such  a  breach,  hasn't  there,  in  a 
country  like  this  one,  where  the  daughter  of  a  shop- 
keeper in  a  small  way  may  grace  the  White  House  — 
or  the  English  peerage? 

"  I  was  very  forcibly  struck,  a  few  years  ago," 
my  friend  went  on,  earnestly,  "  with  the  change 
Wellesley  may  work  in  three  months  in  a  girl's  man- 
ners. We'll  call  the  girl  I  am  to  tell  you  of  Florence 
Gray,  because  that  isn't  in  the  least  like  her  name. 
I  myself  prepared  her  for  college.  She  had  a  good 
mind,  but  the  worst  manners  I  ever  saw  in  any 
maiden  of  her  years.  She  used  to  dine  with  me  some- 
times. Such  occasions  were,  however,  so  painful  to 
my  family  that  I  really  could  not  ask  her  often.  She 
was  horribly  noisy,  voraciously  hungry,  —  a  thing 
all  waist  and  elbows  and  giggles. 

"  But  that  was  before  she  went  to  college.  When 
she  came  home  for  her  first  Christmas  vacation, 
she  was  so  changed  that  I  scarcely  could  believe 
my  eyes !  Her  voice  was  quiet,  her  manners  deferen- 
tial, her  elbows  at  her  sides  instead  of  on  the  table, 
and  she  had  learned  that  a  lady  does  not  display, 
even  if  she  possesses,  the  appetite  of  a  tramp.  I  was 
proud  of  her  metamorphosis,  I  can  tell  you.  Now 
I'll  grant  that  another  girl  might  have  gotten  all 


44  The  College  Girl  of  America 

this  by  observation,  or  as  you  please.  But  this  girl 
would  never  have  gotten  it  without  college,  for 
her  home  had  lacked  refinement,  and  she,  being  she, 
was  incapable  of  picking  it  up  easily,  as  a  result  of 
occasional  visits  to  people  who  make  a  change  in 
their  dress  for  dinner,  and  eat  their  soup  noiselessly. 
But  intimate  contact  with  good  manners  three  times 
a  day  for  three  months,  at  a  formative  period  of  her 
life,  served  to  rescue  her  from  her  heritage  of  vul- 
garity. 

"The  second  girl  fell  under  my  observation  the 
same  year.  Her  mother  was  a  school  friend  of  my 
own,  her  father  a  clever  professional  man,  who  had 
attained  local  success.  Neither  of  the  parents  had 
ever  gone  much  into  society  in  a  large  city,  and  so 
were  accustomed  to  the  rather  low  tone  of  manners 
in  their  little  community.  They  were  not  so  much 
underbred  as  grossly  careless,  you  see.  Well,  their 
one  daughter  grew  up  and  fitted  for  college  in  the 
excellent  academy  of  the  town.  She  was  still  in  the 
high  light  of  her  graduation  halo,  when  her  crudity 
burst  full  upKDn  me.  I  then  saw  her  for  the  first  time 
in  some  years.  The  occasion  was  a  church  one.  Half 
a  dozen  of  the  young  people  in  the  religious  society 
to  which  my  friends  belonged  had  graduated  in  the 
same  class  with  Gertrude  —  let  us  call  her  —  and  a 
reception  was  being  given  them  on  the  evening  of  my 


Wellesley  College  45 

arrival  in  town.  I  went,  accompanied  by  an  elderly 
relative  of  mine,  of  whom  Gertrude  was  really  fond. 

"  Imagine  my  emotions  when,  upon  entering  the 
church  parlours,  I  saw  the  girls  and  boys  for  whom 
the  reception  had  been  arranged  sitting  in  a  rocking- 
chair  circle  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  laughing  and 
chatting  together,  with  their  hacks  toward  their 
guests.  When  their  friends  congratulated  them, 
they  still  sat  rocking,  receiving  the  good  wishes  and 
pleasant  words  over  their  shoulders.  To  my  relative, 
a  woman  of  nearly  seventy,  Gertrude  thrust  out  a 
hand  without  rising.  I  was  so  annoyed  that  I  did 
not  congratulate  the  young  person  at  all. 

"  In  a  few  days  I  saw  the  girl's  mother  and  was 
taken  into  her  confidence  as  to  Gertrude's  choice 
of  college.  *  I  think  we'll  send  her  where  she  can 
live  at  home,'  my  friend  announced.  *  Of  course  it 
isn't  the  money,  —  Gertrude  is  our  only  child,  and 
we  can  get  her  everything,  —  but  I  like  to  have  her 
with  me,  and  so  does  her  father.  She's  all  we've 
got,  you  see.' 

"  I  thought  of  the  reception  and  determined  to 
risk  an  injudicious  criticism.  *  You've  known  me 
a  good  while,  Fanny,'  I  began,  slowly,  *  and  you  say 
you're  fond  of  me.  Will  you  forgive  me,  then,  for 
telling  you  that  I  think  Gertrude  would  be  a  great 
deal  better  off  away  from  home,  in  some  good  col- 


46  The  College  Girl  of  America 

lege  like  Wellesley  or  Smith,  where  she  will  be  seen 
by  eyes  that  are  not  partial,  and  helped  to  self-poise  ? 
Really,  you  know,  she  needs  a  little  toning  up  in  the 
matter  of  manners/ 

"  *  What  do  I  care  for  her  manners  if  her  mind 
is  all  right  ? '  demanded  my  frank  friend  with  some 
asperity. 

"  And  so  obvious  was  it  that  she  cared  nothing, 
that  I  dropped  the  subject. 

"  Gertrude  is  now  a  B.  A.  cum  laude.  But  she  still 
shakes  hands  with  me  without  rising." 

The  social  life  at  Wellesley  is  a  thing  of  rare 
beauty.  Almost  all  the  students  are  "  Barn  Swal- 
lows," and  so  cultivate  good-fellowship  and  partici- 
pate in  the  biweekly  dramatics  and  occasional  dances 
which  occur  in  the  barn,  a  building  near  College 
Hall  that  has  been  well  described  as  *'  a  sublimated 
hay  shed."  The  bam  is  lighted  by  electricity,  heated 
by  steam,  and  has  a  fine  dancing-floor,  upon  which, 
however,  none  except  students  and  their  girl  friends 
have  ever  trod  a  measure. 

Here  many  fair  actresses  have  begun  —  and 
ended  —  their  careers  behind  the  footlights,  have 
tried  to  stifle  their  laughter  and  preserve  an  impas- 
sioned tone  while  the  crowded  house  giggled  frankly 
at  their  love-making,  have  done  the  gallant  to  pretty 


Wellesley  College  47 

freshmen,  and  have  served  their  neighbours  and  their 
class  in  many  similar  ways,  self-sacrificing  and  yet 
delightful. 

One  of  the  most  select  societies  of  the  college  is 
the  Shakespeare  Club,  which  holds  meetings  every 
Wednesday  evening  throughout  the  academic  year 
in  a  beautiful  little  house  which  exactly  reproduces 
in  its  exterior  aspect  Shakespeare's  birthplace,  and 
holds,  on  an  inner  view,  much  of  charm.  The 
Phi  Sigma,  the  Zeta  Alpha,  the  Alpha  Kappa  Chi 
and  the  Tau  Zeta  Epsilon  are  the  Greek  letter 
societies  here,  and  the  Agora  is  the  debating  club. 
It  was. Mr.  Durant  himself  who  founded  the  Shake- 
speare Society,  and  who  later  encouraged  Wellesley 
girls  to  give  the  annual  outdoor  play  which  has  since 
become  so  important  a  feature  of  the  college  life. 

Another  distinctly  Wellesley  rite  is  the  May-day 
hoop-rolling  of  the  seniors.  A  curious  enough  sight 
it  is,  too,  to  see  these  tall,  graceful  girls,  clad  in  aca- 
demic gown  and  mortar-board,  rolling  their  hoops 
over  the  level  carriage  road  in  front  of  College  Hall 
very  early  in  the  morning,  and  having  far  more 
trouble  at  the  business,  you  may  be  sure,  than  they 
were  wont  to  experience  in  those  long  ago  days  when 
simple  problems  in  addition  represented  their  high- 
est scholarly  achievement.  Even  to  this  final  frolic 
of  college  life  there  is,  however,  an  impressive  side 


48  The  College  Girl  of  America 

when  the  members  of  the  class,  soon  to  be  parted, 
make  a  circle  with  their  hoops,  and,  so  massed  t^ 
gether,  lustily  sing  their  dear  class  song. 

Tree  Day,  which  comes  later  on,  is  a  direct  herit- 
age from  Mr.  Durant,  who  bade  the  earliest  classes 
set  aside  one  day  in  Maytime  for  an  outdoor  college 
revel,  for  the  planting  and  cherishing  of  chosen 
trees,  for  song  and  ode  and  pageantry,  and  for  recog- 
nition of  the  sympathy  between  life  and  its  mother, 
Nature.  Since  the  primitive  celebration  of  1877, 
there  has  been  no  break  in  the  succession  of  Welles- 
ley's  Tree  Days;  on  the  contrary,  the  evolution  has 
been  steadily  in  the  direction  of  more  graceful  and 
picturesque  ceremonies.  Year  by  year  the  tone  has 
been  more  consistently  poetic,  the  costumes  more 
dainty,  the  musical  and  dramatic  elements  more 
effective.  More  and  more  each  year  the  ceremony 
in  which  the  freshmen  plant  their  tree,  and  the 
seniors  bid  farewell  to  theirs,  takes  the  form  of  a 
beauteous  sylvan  masque.  Sometimes  green-robed 
dryads  with  leafy  wands  come  dancing  from  the 
woodland,  whence  a  blast  of  the  huntsman's  horn 
has  called  Robin  Hood  and  his  merry  men;  some- 
times wild-haired  gipsies  toss  their  tambourines; 
sometimes  gnomes  in  earth-coloured  garments  troop 
by  with  spade  on  shoulder;  sometimes  the  flowers 
of  the  field  blend  their  petal  hues ;  sometimes  Eng- 


TREE    DAY. 


Wellesley  College  49 

lish  maidens  weave  the  circle  about  the  ribboned 
May-pole :  but  always  this  unique  festival  redounds 
to  and  is  inspired  by  the  love  of  nature.  This  is  a 
family  party.    No  men  are  ever  admitted  for  it. 

Not  so  Float  Day.  In  that  the  world  shares. 
Miss  Katherine  Lee  Bates,  herself  a  professor  at 
Wellesley,  as  well  as  a  gifted  poet,  has  thus  charm- 
ingly described  one  phase  of  a  representative  Float : 
"  The  spectators,  numbered  by  thousands,  were 
gathered  by  seven  o'clock  —  daylight  still,  although 
a  filmy  half-moon  peeped  down  from  the  quiet  arch 
of  blue,  a  surreptitious  guest.  The  tall  oaks  on  the 
steep  slope  of  Pall  Mall  stood  motionless,  as  if 
listening  to  the  mirthful  sounds  from  Lake  Waban. 
Now  it  was  the  murmurous  laughter  of  the  great 
throng  that,  seated  on  shawls  and  cushions,  filled 
the  curving  shore  and  reached  out  upon  the  spacious 
platform  of  the  boathouse;  now  it  was  the  sylvan 
note  of  a  bugle,  and  now  the  chant  of  youthful 
voices,  the  treble  gallantly  reinforced  by  deeper 
tones.  Sometimes  came  a  sweet  blithe  strain  from 
the  Glee  Club ;  but  in  the  main  a  fashion  of  miscel- 
laneous musical  repartee  prevailed,  in  which  one  class 
strove  against  another  with  sturdy  diversion  in 
favour  of  a  third  and  fourth  rival,  —  an  occasionally 
ludicrous  effect  calling  out  derisive  applause." 

Inasmuch  as  Float  Day  is  the  one  festival  of 


go  The  College  Girl  of  America 

this  girl's  college  concerning  which  the  outside 
world  knows  almost  as  much  as  is  to  be  known,  I 
will  not  dwell  upon  it  further  than  to  say  that  if  the 
moon  and  other  weather  conditions  are  right,  it 
offers  an  exquisite  memory  to  the  store  of  whom- 
soever participates  in  it.  Japanese  lanterns  glim- 
mering here  and  there,  music  on  the  water,  pretty 
girls  in  pretty  gowns,  and,  finally,  the  crews  grouped 
together  to  form  a  beautiful  star,  are  some  of  the 
items  that  contribute  to  this  charming  event,  the 
logical  but  poetic  climax  of  the  crew-training,  which 
is  a  feature  of  Wellesley's  athletic  life.  Miss  Lucille 
E.  Hill,  the  physical  director  of  the  college,  believes 
far  more  in  athletics  than  in  gymnastics.  To  be  sure, 
Wellesley  girls  practise  indoors,  but  this  only  as  a 
means  to  an  end,  —  and  when  out-of-door  life  is  im- 
possible. Rowing,  tennis,  golf,  basket-ball,  cross- 
country running,  and  hockey,  are  particularly 
encouraged.  Lately  a  new  exercise,  putting  the  shot, 
has  been  added  to  the  list  of  organized  sports,  and 
bids  fair  to  become  very  popular. 

The  culmination  to  an  individual  of  athletic  life 
at  Wellesley  comes,  of  course,  when  a  girl  is  elected 
to  the  crew.  Once  125  girls  applied  and  tried  for 
places  on  the  'varsity  eight.  From  the  very  start, 
the  boat  work  on  the  lake  has  been  encouraged,  but 
in  the  beginning  it  was  a  white  muslin  indulgence,  — 


Wellesley  College  51 

as  witness  the  occasion  when  the  girls  rowed  Long- 
fellow across  the  lake  in  the  beauteous  barque, 
Evangeline,  Nowadays,  however,  the  barges  are 
very  professional  looking  affairs,  manned  as  they 
are  by  maidens  in  dark  blouses  and  bloomers,  using 
the  Oxford  stroke. 

Easy  as  it  would  be  to  ignore  the  subject  of 
money,  I  propose  in  the  case  of  Wellesley  to  give  the 
actual  cost  of  one  student's  life.  To  many  girls, 
as  I  very  well  know,  this  point  is  vital.  Here,  then, 
is  the  account  of  a  girl  whose  parents  allowed  her 
five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year: 

Received $550 

College  bills $400 

Books,  stationery,  etc 50 

Travelling  expenses,  including  trips  into  Bos- 
ton          24 

Clothes  bought  at  college,  a  hat,  a  pair  of  danc- 
ing slippers,  etc 14 

Furniture  for  my  room,  desk,  bookcase,  etc.      .  10 

Presents,  Christmas,  etc 25 

Food  for  my  tea-table 5 

Recreation 13 

Sundries 9 

Total  $550  —  51^550 

The  girl  who  must  earn  part  of  her  money  her- 
self reduces  her  expenses  by  living  in  a  cheaper 
boarding-house  off  the  campus,  perhaps  paying  her 


52  The  College  Girl  of  America 

board  by  tutoring  the  landlady's  children.  The  ways 
of  earning  money  at  college  are  countless.  Tutoring 
proves  a  lucrative  occupation,  and  I  know  a  girl  who, 
for  two  years,  has  met  all  her  expenses  with  money 
thus  earned.  Other  girls  at  Wellesley  sell  blue 
prints,  darn  stockings,  make  gym  and  fencing  suits, 
or  copy  themes. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  student  who  works 
for  her  education  is  in  any  way  handicapped  or 
looked  down  upon.  Except  that  she  has  less  time 
at  her  disposal,  she  has  an  equal  showing  with  the 
millionaire's  daughter.  At  Wellesley  more  than 
one  class  president  has  belonged  to  the  Cooperative 
Association.  For  it  is  character  and  personality 
which  count  here,  not  money. 

The  social  opportunities  of  Wellesley  girls  are 
many  and  varied.  Distinguished  visitors  from  over- 
seas are  often  entertained  at  the  college.  Last  win- 
ter, when  Yeats,  the  Irish  poet,  came  to  this  country, 
he  gave  his  first  lecture,  available  to  a  Boston  audi- 
ence, at  Wellesley,  and  that  the  occasion  might  be  the 
more  widely  interesting,  President  Caroline  Hazard 
of  the  college  invited  the  Boston  Authors'  Club,  of 
which  she  is  a  member,  to  come  out  for  the  after- 
noon. Thus  Wellesley  girls  had,  that  day,  an  oppor- 
tunity, not  only  to  enjoy  a  marvellously  interesting 
address  by  a  well-known   foreign  author,   but   a 


Wellesley  College  53 

chance  also  to  meet  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  and 
many  other  distinguished  representatives  of  the  best 
society  America  has  produced. 

Four  years  in  such  surroundings  as  the  College 
Beautiful  supplies,  with  such  a  normal  regimen  of 
work  and  play  as  has  been  here  mapped  out,  with 
such  memories  of  self-sacrifice  and  aspiration  as 
make  the  Wellesley  background,  and  such  generous 
opportunities  for  culture  as  give  it  its  present  atmos- 
phere, may  well  make  the  undergraduate  here  be- 
lieve the  truth  of  the  text  expounded  each  Flower 
Sunday  of  the  academic  year,  when  Henry  Durant's 
memory  and  Mrs.  Durant's  living  interest  are  es- 
pecially celebrated  in  the  college  chapel.  What  is 
the  text?    What  should  it  be  but  "  God  is  Love." 


VASSAR   COLLEGE 

Thousands  who  have  heard  of  Vassar  College 
know  little  or  nothing  of  the  man  behind  the  work, 
but  none  of  these  thousands  were  educated  at 
Poughkeepsie,  it  is  safe  to  say,  inasmuch  as  the 
natal  day  of  its  founder  is  one  of  the  two  or  three 
great  days  in  the  Vassar  College  year.  In  his  own 
time,  Matthew  Vassar  was  a  very  substantial  figure, 
—  one  of  the  most  successful  business  men,  indeed, 
which  this  country  has  ever  known.  He  was  not 
American  bom,  however,  for  it  was  at  East  Dere- 
ham, Parish  of  Tuddenham,  Norfolk,  England,  that 
he  first  saw  the  light  of  day.  His  father  was  a 
farmer,  and  his  mother  a  farmer's  daughter.  But 
the  Vassar  family  was  of  French  descent,  Mat- 
thew's great-grandfather  having  settled  in  Norfolk 
at  a  time  when  his  name  had  the  form  of  Le  Vas- 
seur.  His  family  cherished  a  tradition  that  the 
Therese  whom  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  made  his  wife 
was  of  their  line. 

Very  far  removed  from  Rousseau  in  moral 
stamina  and  in  religious  sense  were  the  Vassars 

54 


Vassar  College  55 

among  whom  Matthew  grew  up.  It  was,  indeed, 
in  order  that  they  might  secure  greater  reHgious 
freedom  that  James  Vassar  and  his  wife  came  to 
this  country  with  his  brother  Thomas,  in  1796. 
The  boy  Matthew  was  then  a  promising  child  of  four. 
The  httle  family  spent  their  first  winter  in  America 
in  New  York.  But  early  in  the  spring  of  1797,  the 
two  brothers,  having  purchased  a  farm  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  acres  in  Dutchess  County,  near  Pough- 
keepsie,  they  there  took  up  residence.  There  it  was 
that  Thomas  Vassar  started  the  successful  brewery 
enterprise  upon  which  the  family  fortune  —  and 
incidentally,  Vassar  College  —  was  builded.  Suc- 
cess came  quickly.  For  it  was  only  a  year  or  two 
after  the  first  barley,  purchased  in  England,  had 
sprouted  in  the  responsive  Dutchess  County  soil,  that 
little  Matthew  and  his  mother  began  to  be  seen  very 
often  driving  away  to  Poughkeepsie  in  a  farm- 
wagon,  which  had  a  barrel  of  ale  standing  up  proudly 
behind  the  seat.  By  1801,  the  demand  for  the  Vas- 
sar product  became  so  great  that  the  farm  was  sold 
and  business  begun  on  a  much  larger  basis. 

Thus  things  went  on  until  Matthew  reached  the 
age  of  fourteen.  Then  his  father  proposed  to  take 
him  into  the  brewery  as  an  assistant.  But,  rather 
oddly,  the  boy  refused  to  listen  to  the  proposition. 
Possibly  this   was   a   mere  childish   freak   on   his 


56  The  College  Girl  of  America 

part.  Certainly  it  cannot  be  ascribed  to  any  Puri- 
tanic abhorrence  for  beer-makings,  inasmuch  as,  when 
older,  and  presumably  wiser,  Matthew  Vassar  quite 
contentedly  carried  on  the  lucrative  business  his 
father  had  begun.  But  he  did  not  go  into  the  work 
at  fourteen.  Threatened  with  a  seven  years'  appren- 
ticeship to  a  tanner  as  an  alternative,  he  appealed 
to  his  mother  for  help,  which  she,  motherlike,  gave 
generously.  The  tanner  was  to  come  on  a  specified 
morning,  but  when  the  hour  arrived  Matthew 
Vassar  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  The  day  before  he 
and  his  mother  had  walked  down  to  New  Hamburg, 
eight  miles  below  Poughkeepsie,  the  lad  with  an 
extra  shirt  and  a  pair  of  stockings  tied  up  in  a  ban- 
danna handkerchief,  the  mother  with  tears  in  her 
eyes,  but  —  one  must  believe  —  respect  in  her  heart 
for  her  son's  desire  to  make  his  own  way  in  the 
world.  At  the  ferry-landing  the  boy  received  a  kiss 
and  seventy-five  cents.  His  mother  watched  the  boat 
safely  to  the  other  shore  of  the  Hudson,  after  which 
she  walked  back  to  Poughkeepsie. 

Meanwhile,  young  Matthew  tramped  down  the 
western  bank  to  Newburgh,  where  he  secured  a  place 
as  clerk  in  a  store.  Here  he  stayed  four  years,  sav- 
ing his  money  the  while,  —  as  do  all  the  successful 
men  one  reads  about.  At  the  end  of  this  time, 
being  eighteen  years  old,  and  having  come  to  "  sensi- 


Vassar  College  57 

ble  "  views  of  life,  he  returned  to  Poughkeepsie  with 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  entered  his 
father's  establishment  as  bookkeeper  and  collector. 
A  year  later  the  brewery  burned. 

This  was  Matthew  Vassar's  opportunity  to  show 
his  remarkable  business  ability.  He  knew  that 
money  was  to  be  made  in  brewing,  and  he  was  de- 
termined, even  if  fate  had  seemed  fickle  toward  him, 
that  Vassar  wealth  should  be  forthcoming  as  a  result 
of  Vassar  brew.  So  he  began  making  ale  which  he 
himself  delivered  about  the  town.  In  addition  to 
his  wholesale  trade  he  turned  an  honest  penny 
serving  oysters  and  ale  in  a  little  basement-room  of 
the  Poughkeepsie  court-house  to  those  who  cared  to 
buy.  Thus  he  so  prospered  that  a  little  before  his 
twenty-first  birthday  he  was  able  to  take  unto  him- 
self a  wife.  Later  there  was  built  a  substantial  new 
brewery  with  which  the  founder  of  Poughkeepsie's 
college  for  women  was  personally  associated  for 
a  term  of  years,  almost  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
indeed.  But  long  before  this,  —  in  1845,  —  Mr. 
Vassar  visited  Europe  and  made  an  extended  trip 
through  Great  Britain  and  on  the  Continent.  Then 
it  was,  perhaps,  that  the  idea  of  founding  some 
great  public  institution  first  began  to  take  definite 
shape  in  his  mind.  His  college  for  women  is  said 
to  have  been  the  thought  of  a  hard-working  teacher, 


58  The  College  Girl  of  America 

his  niece,  Lydia  Booth.  Certain  it  is  that  during  the 
years  following  his  return  from  the  grand  tour,  the 
idea  of  an  institution  which  should  do  for  young 
women  what  such  great  schools  as  Yale  and  Harvard 
were  doing  for  young  men  gradually  developed  in 
his  mind,  reaching  full  maturity  about  i860.  As 
he  himself  said,  in  words  which  George  William 
Curtis  thought  ought  to  be  written  in  letters  of 
gold  on  the  front  of  Vassar  College :  "  It  occurred 
to  me  that  woman,  having  received  from  her 
Creator  the  same  intellectual  constitution  as  man, 
has  the  same  right  as  man  to  intellectual  culture  and 
development.  It  is  my  hope  to  be  the  instrument,  in 
the  hands  of  Providence,  of  founding  an  institution 
which  shall  accomplish  for  young  women  what  our 
colleges  are  accomplishing  for  young  men.'* 

Pursuant  to  this  ideal,  the  charter  for  the  Vassar 
Female  College  was  obtained  from  the  Legislature 
of  New  York,  and  on  the  fourth  day  of  June,  1861, 
Mr.  Vassar  broke  ground  with  a  spade  which  is  still 
preserved,  for  the  Main  Building,  which  is  still  in 
use.  The  site  was  two  miles  east  of  the  city  of 
Poughkeepsie,  in  a  park  which,  from  many  points 
of  view,  offers  an  ideal  background  for  student  life. 
In  September,  1865,  the  college  was  opened,  with 
over  three  hundred  students  enrolled  in  the  first  class. 
Two  years  later  the  name  was  changed  to  Vassar 


•4 

1 

/e 

ft! 

1 

Vassar  College  59 

College.  For  almost  three  years  after  this  its 
devoted  founder  gave  nearly  all  his  time  and  the 
bulk  of  his  strength  to  promoting  the  interests  of  the 
college.  He  died  at  the  great  institution  he  had 
created,  in  June,  1868,  while  delivering  his  annual 
address  before  its  board  of  trustees.  He  left  no 
children,  but  the  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars 
which  he  had  bestowed  upon  Vassar  College  was 
later  increased  by  his  nephews,  Matthew,  junior,  and 
John  Guy,  to  considerably  over  a  million  and  a 
quarter.  Small  wonder  that  the  birthday  of  this 
generous  friend  is  observed  as  a  gala-day  at  Vassar, 
and  that  speakers  of  national  reputation  delight  then 
to  honour  this  really  great  self-made  man. 

The  first  social  function  in  the  college  year  is  the 
reception  given  to  the  freshmen  by  the  Christian 
Association.  Soon  after  this,  as  the  girl  is  getting 
well  into  the  swing  of  college  life,  comes  the  anni- 
versary of  the  Philalethean  Society.  Philaletheis 
is  the  mother  of  all  the  societies  of  the  college,  and 
as  such  is  naturally  ancient  and  honourable.  She 
was  born  December  5,  1865.  To  her  any  student 
may  belong.  And  because  she  has  the  four  Hall 
Plays,  which  are  another  feature  of  Vassar  life, 
every  student  early  enrolls  for  membership.  After 
that  the  Vassar  girl  looks  about  her  and  begins  really 
to  absorb  the  atmosphere  of  the  college.    Already, 


6o  The  College  Girl  of  America 

no  doubt,  she  has  fallen  unconsciously  into  the  life 
of  the  place  and  begun  to  view  things  from  the  Vas- 
sar  angle;  already  all  the  little  peculiarities  which 
differentiate  life  here  from  life  in  other  colleges 
have  become  to  her  intimate  and  almost  necessary. 
So  she  comes  into  her  heritage. 

Unlike  many  of  the  girls'  colleges,  Vassar  has 
very  little  relationship  with  the  life  of  the  town  in 
which  it  is  situated.  The  college,  indeed,  forms  a 
small  town  by  itself.  The  girls  live  in  dormitories  on 
the  campus,  and  confine  themselves  pretty  closely 
from  Monday  to  Friday  night  to  strictly  academic 
interests.  One  of  the  pleasantest  things  about 
Vassar  is  the  fact  that  the  dormitories  are  very  near 
each  other.  The  founder's  first  idea  was,  indeed, 
to  have  all  Vassar  students  live  under  a  single  roof, 
as  if  they  belonged  to  one  large  family,  and  it  was 
with  this  in  mind  that  Main  was  erected. 

The  original  large,  long  building,  with  a  trans- 
verse wing  at  each  end,  with  library  and  porte- 
cochere  in  the  centre,  is  the  special  domain  to-day 
of  the  seniors.  And  particularly  given  over  to  the 
girls  in  the  highest  class  is  the  corridor,  which  is  on 
the  same  floor  with  the  chapel.  Only  seniors  live 
here,  and  only  seniors  furnish  and  care  for  the  par- 
lour at  the  south  end  of  it.  Small  wonder,  there- 
fore, that  to  be  a  senior  at  Vassar  is  the  height 


Vassar  College  6i 

of  undergraduate  aspiration.  The  seniors  enjoy 
several  special  privileges  for  which  the  other  classes 
have  to  wait.  In  the  main  dining-room,  their  tables 
occupy  the  entire  length  of  the  long  apartment, 
stretching  down  the  centre  in  parallel  lines,  a  thing 
which  brings  the  class  together  three  times  a  day, 
and  enables  a  girl  really  to  know  those  who  will  be 
graduated  with  her. 

The  height  of  senior  happiness  comes  upon  a 
girl's  birthday.  It  is  the  custom  for  each  senior 
table  to  celebrate  the  birthday  of  every  member  of 
the  class  sometime  during  the  year,  and  a  committee 
is  early  appointed  to  manage  the  matter.  Thus  the 
fortunate  maiden  whose  day  has  arrived  finds  many 
queer-shaped  bundles  by  her  plate,  and  always  a 
superb  cake  to  be  cut  by  her.  While  the  other  stu- 
dents look  longingly  on  at  the  candle-lighted,  flower- 
bestrewn  tables,  with  their  birthday  cream  and  cake, 
the  seniors  sometimes  have  sung,  tantalizingly : 

**  Only  Seniors  have  this  privilege, 
Others  watch  with  envious  eye, 
Don't  you  care,  you'll  be  here  sometime, 
In  the  glorious  by  and  by." 

Especially  gay  is  the  birthday  party  of  the  presi- 
dent of  the  senior  class,  for  which  the  tables  are 
usually  massed  together.     When  the  feast  is  over, 


62  The  College  Girl  of  America 

the  toasts  responded  to,  the  flowers  gathered  up  as 
mementos,  and  the  guests  of  the  evening  come  out 
to  the  hall,  they  find  the  girls  of  other  classes  massed 
by  the  dining-room  doors.  The  undergraduates 
then  cheer  vociferously  as  the  honoured  senior  of 
seniors  makes  her  v^ay,  with  her  friends,  to  the 
senior  parlour.  The  furniture  in  this  parlour  be- 
longs to  individual  members  of  the  class.  Thus  it  is 
that  each  year  the  room  presents  a  different  appear- 
ance, and  reflects  pretty  exactly  the  class  standard 
of  taste.  A  senior  may  use  the  parlour  at  any  time, 
but  she  is  never  supposed  to  study  there. 

A  great  deal  is  said  at  Vassar  about  the  "  sister 
classes,"  by  which  is  meant  the  seniors  and  sopho- 
mores, juniors  and  freshmen.  After  the  spring 
vacation  the  mutual  admiration  of  sorority  is  at 
its  height,  and  every  night  between  dinner  and 
chapel,  as  the  seniors  withdraw  to  the  steps  of 
Rockefeller  Hall  and  sing  their  class  song,  the  sopho- 
mores sit  below  and  adore.  When  chapel  bell  rings, 
however,  they  promptly  line  up  and  stand  in  deferen- 
tial fashion,  while  the  seniors,  four  abreast,  walk 
in  to  take  their  places  of  honour  directly  in  front  of 
President  Taylor's  desk.  It  is  amusing  to  note  that 
the  juniors  and  freshmen  on  the  steps  of  Strong 
Hall  feebly  emulate  this  bit  of  ritual. 

The  height  of  sophomore  devotion  to  the  senior 


Vassar  College  63 

is  attained  on  Class  Day  when  the  Daisy  Chain 
attention  comes  to  the  fore.  For  nearly  a  day  the 
entire  sophomore  class  picks  daisies,  and  for  part  of 
another  day  the  Sophs  work  hard,  making  a  long, 
thick  rope  out  of  the  pretty  field  flowers.  As  a  re- 
ward for  this  loving  toil,  fourteen  of  the  prettiest 
sophomores  are  chosen  to  carry  the  chain  over  their 
shoulders  as  the  graduating  class  moves  out  of  the 
main  building  on  Class  Day.  Standing  two  by  two, 
they  then  make  an  aisle  for  the  seniors,  and,  after  the 
distinguished  maidens  are  seated  on  the  platform, 
the  chain  is  wound  around  their  chairs.  Later  it 
is  placed  about  the  Class  Tree. 

The  beauty  of  the  surrounding  country  at  Vassar 
is  a  constant  incentive  to  out-of-door  activity.  The 
walks  to  Cedar  Bridge,  where  bloodroot  and  anem- 
ones first  come  in  the  spring,  the  climb  up  the  long 
slopes  of  Richmond  Hill  to  the  lone  pine-tree  which 
stands  sentinel  on  top,  the  tramp  to  the  top  of  Sun- 
rise Hill  thence  to  view  the  Blue  Catskills  on  the 
north  and  the  bluer  highlands  on  the  south  are 
things  to  quicken  the  Vassar  girl's  pulse  in  memory 
as  they  stirred  her  blood  in  achievement. 

One  of  the  choicest  memories  that  Vassar  has 
implanted  can  be  shared,  however,  only  by  those 
older  alumnae  who  were  at  the  college  in  Miss 
Mitchell's  day,  and  so  were  privileged  to  attend  her 


64  The  College  Girl  of  America 

Dome  Parties.  On  these  occasions  the  hostess  sat 
in  state  among  her  instruments,  her  cat  and  kittens 
helping  her  receive.  The  rhymes  for  the  cards, 
which,  of  course,  only  astronomy  students  received, 
had  always  been  written  by  Miss  Mitchell  herself, 
and  were  quaint  and  delightful. 

In  every  possible  way,  though,  the  old  Vassar  is 
linked  with  the  new.  A  great  deal  used  to  be  said 
about  flapjack  days.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that 
these  still  survive,  griddle-cakes  being  regularly 
served  twice  a  week  in  the  big  dining-room.  The 
food  at  Vassar,  though  good,  is  fairly  plain.  Of 
course  there  could  be  nothing  extravagant  in  a  col- 
lege which  costs  only  $400  a  year,  including  tuition. 
The  rooms,  assigned  at  an  annual  drawing,  by  lot, 
are  usually  in  a  suite,  two  bedrooms  and  one  study. 
The  girls  make  their  own  beds,  and,  to  some  extent, 
see  to  their  own  rooms.  The  furniture  is  always 
simple,  but  sufficient.  There  are  now  about  one  hun- 
dred students  in  each  hall  on  the  campus,  while  Main 
accommodates  five  hundred  in  all. 

The  Vassar  girl  does  not  wear  cap  and  gown. 
Neither  does  she  have  much  use  for  a  hat.  In  cold 
weather  she  may  often  be  seen  on  the  campus  with 
a  thick  coat,  warm  gloves  and  luxurious  furs,  per- 
haps, quite  bareheaded.  To  be  sure,  there  is  a  strict 
rule  to  the  effect  that  she  may  never  go  in  the  cars 


Vassar  College  65 

or  down-town  "  uncovered/'  to  use  PauFs  parlance, 
but  this  troubles  her  little,  inasmuch  as  she  spends 
only  a  small  part  of  her  life  in  Poughkeepsie.  Yet 
once  the  Opera  House  of  Poughkeepsie  saw  her 
often  and  attained  world-wide  renown  as  a  result. 
This  was  when  the  Vassar  girls  gave  "  Antigone  " 
in  the  original  Greek,  on  its  stage. 

Chapel  attendance  is  compulsory  at  Vassar,  but 
it  has  never  occurred  to  the  girls  to  make  a  hardship 
out  of  this.  Similarly,  students  are  expected  not  to 
go  away  from  the  college  much,  except  during  va- 
cations. And  when  leaving  town,  they  must,  in 
every  case,  secure  permission.  In  general,  it  will  be 
seen,  the  life  at  Vassar  is  distinctly  a  campus  one, 
with  a  far  greater  proportion  of  work  than  of  play  in 
it.  Saturday,  to  be  sure,  is  the  free  day,  and  then, 
as  on  Friday  evening,  social  affairs  may  be  held. 
But  all  through  the  week  the  ideal  kept  before  the 
girl  is  that  of  work. 

To  this  the  newcomer  very  quickly  becomes  ac- 
customed. She  is  roused  in  the  morning  by  the 
seven  o'clock  bell,  and  she  learns  to  be  ready  for 
breakfast  in  half  an  hour.  When  she  leaves  the  din- 
ing-room she  has  until  half-past  eight  before  the 
recitation  day  begins,  time  enough  to  straighten  her 
room,  and  even  glance  over  a  doubtful  sentence  in 
her  translation.    No  freshman  has  more  than  three 


66  The  College  Girl  of  America 

hours  of  recitation  a  day,  —  the  first  year  is  alto- 
gether "  required  "  work,  —  so  that  she  may  easily 
spend  a  good  proportion  of  time  in  out-of-door 
sport,  or  in  "  frivoling."  Three  hours  of  exercise 
are  required  a  week,  though  golf,  tennis,  swim- 
ming, basket-ball  stnd  hockey  are  accepted  as  ful- 
filling this  requirement.  Athletics  are  governed  by 
an  athletic  association,  and  "  gym  "  work  is  compul- 
sory. Yet  so  glad  are  the  girls  to  make  use  of  the 
complete  equipment  of  baths  and  swimming-tank 
and  apparatus  which  help  to  make  exercise  in  their 
gymnasium  inviting  that  they  never  stop  to  remem- 
ber the  "  must." 

For  an  atmosphere  distinctively  Vassar  we  must 
turn  to  the  "  Trig  Ceremonies."  These  correspond 
to  the  burning  of  mathematical  books  customary 
at  some  colleges  for  men,  and  in  them  the  sopho- 
mores celebrate  their  completion  of  the  prescribed 
course  in  trigonometry.  The  play  of  the  occasion, 
given  on  the  stage  of  Philalethean  Hall  before  an 
audience  of  students  and  faculty  only,  is  almost  in- 
variably an  original  and  clever  travesty  on  the 
terrors  of  this  prescribed  course  in  mathematics. 
One  year  trigonometry  was  represented  in  the  form 
of  a  young  professor  who  courted  and  wed  a  maiden 
typifying  that  particular  class.  Another  time  the 
girls  presented  a  skit  founded  on  the  voyage  of 


Vassar  College  67 

Columbus,  in  which  the  land  of  Trig  was  discovered 
and  conquered.  "  Whatever  the  form  of  the  play, 
sophomores  are  extolled  in  it,  freshmen  kept  under  a 
steady  fire  of  grinds,  juniors  receive  back  with 
interest  their  grinds  upon  the  younger  sisters  at  the 
preceding  ceremonies,  seniors  are  flattered,  and  col- 
lege life  in  general  taken  off  as  often  as  possible/' 
The  Tree  Ceremonies,  like  those  of  "  Trig,"  be- 
long to  the  sophomores.  Whatever  else  they  lack, 
they  are  supposed  to  have  the  fascination  of  mystery. 
On  some  auspicious  night,  at  the  time  of  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  class-tree,  the  sophomores,  in  costume, 
meet  by  secret  and  march  with  lanterns  to  the 
chosen  spot  where  the  solemn  rites  appertain- 
ing to  the  dedication  of  an  elm,  already  chosen,  are 
to  take  place.  One  year  the  girls  will  be  darkies; 
another,  animals  going  into  the  ark;  again,  vestal 
virgins  in  sheets  and  pillow-cases.  The  freshmen 
usually  find  out  about  the  ceremonies  and  try  to 
interfere.  Afterward  both  parties  get  amicably 
together  and  enjoy  the  food  part  of  the  entertain- 
ment, careful  preparations  for  which  have  usually 
been  made  well  in  advance.  On  one  occasion  a 
diversion  was  supplied  by  waxworks  in  which  the 
various  college  dignitaries  were  imposingly  repre- 
sented.   Members  of  the  faculty  at  Vassar  can  stand 


68  The  College  Girl  of  America 

jokes  at  their  own  expense.  Witness  this  in  a  recent 
Vassarion:  "  None  but  professors  may  talk  aloud 
in  the  library." 

The  Junior  Party  was  for  years  a  Hudson  River 
trip,  to  the  accompaniment  of  music,  on  a  steamer 
chartered  for  the  occasion.  Latterly,  however,  it 
has  sometimes  been  a  lawn  party.  One  year  it  was 
a  hay-making  frolic,  the  guests  raking  hay  by  moon- 
light on  the  campus,  and  seeking  in  each  pile  of  the 
sweet-savoured  grass  the  dainty  souvenirs  and 
prizes  hidden  away  by  their  hostesses.  There  is 
always  fun,  too,  at  Hallowe'en  and  on  St.  Valentine's 
Day.  But  perhaps  the  best  times  of  all  come  as 
a  result  of  the  cosy  private  spreads,  with  their  crack- 
ers, jelly,  olives,  and  similar  indigestibles.  Many  of 
these  are  held  at  the  time  of  the  Ice  Carnival,  a  festi- 
val observed  on  the  lake  at  night  to  an  accompani- 
ment of  bonfires  and  Chinese  lanterns  with  bright 
costumes,  fancy  skating,  and  good  music  from  the 
band. 

From  all  that  has  been  said  here  about  the  various 
forms  of  pleasure  and  sport  at  Vassar,  it  must  not 
be  thought  that  the  academic  side  of  life  is  ever  long 
lost  sight  of.  Vassar  girls  are  really  hard  students. 
One  of  their  professors  has  been  credited  with  say- 
ing,   in    whimsical    criticism    of    them :     "  Young 


Vassar  College  69 

ladies  are  much  pleasanter  to  teach,  and  they  are  not 
intellectually  inferior  to  men  in  any  way,  but  one 
thing  they  cannot  learn  —  they  do  not  know  how 
to  flunk;  it  seems  utterly  to  unstring  them  if  they 
fail  in  a  recitation."  From  which  it  may  be  in- 
ferred that  since  Vassar  girls  are  fairly  happy  and 
poised,  they  do  not  often  ''  fail  in  recitations." 

Each  subject  taught  at  this  college  has  its  own 
special  room,  and  almost  all  departments  have  their 
allied  clubs.  Thus  there  is  the  Shakespeare  Club, 
the  Contemporary  Club,  the  Marshall  Economic 
Club,  and  many  others.  Consumers'  League  en- 
deavour, it  is  interesting  to  note,  is  particularly 
active  here.  So,  every  day  of  every  week  is  healthily 
filled  with  work  and  play.  Sundays  are  times  of  quiet 
and  peacefulness,  with  morning  service  conducted  by 
divines  of  different  denominations  who  come  from 
all  over  the  country  to  preach,  and  an  evening  Bible 
lecture  and  a  prayer-meeting,  led  by  the  president  of 
the  college.  The  old  chapel  in  Main,  whose  floor 
has  been  worn  rough  by  three  generations  of  Vassar 
girls,  is  this  fall  (1904)  to  be  abandoned  for  a 
splendid  new  building,  very  imposing  with  its 
Gothic  interior  and  its  rose  windows,  its  granite 
walls,  and  its  well-proportioned  dome.  But  the 
lowly  and  reverent  spirit  in  which  daily  worship  is 


70  The  College  Girl  of  America 

conducted  will  be  the  same,  and  in  the  years  to  come, 
as  in  the  past,  these  girls  will  say  to  themselves, 
"  The  graduate  of  this  college  dare  not  let  her  life  be 
a  failure;  she  is  under  bonds  to  do  things  in  the 
world." 


A    MT.    HOLYOKE    GIRL. 


MT.  HOLYOKE  COLLEGE 

"  Mt.  Holyoke  College  is  the  product,  not  of 
the  Zeitgeist,  not  of  any  impersonal  evolutionary  in- 
fluence, not  of  merely  cosmic  forces ;  but  it  is  rather 
the  vital  personal  embodiment  of  the  thought,  life, 
and  love  of  a  multitude  of  thinking,  living,  loving 
persons  of  whom  Mary  Lyon  was  first  and  chief." 
In  this  remarkable  sentence  of  a  recent  Founder's 
Day  oration,  President  Hopkins  of  Williams  Col- 
lege summed  up,  as  no  one  else  has  ever  done,  the 
explanation  of  the  college  at  South  Hadley.  There 
is  probably  in  all  American  history  no  other  woman 
precisely  like  Mary  Lyon ;  and  certainly  there  is  in 
our  country  to-day  no  other  institution  which  pos- 
sesses exactly  the  characteristic  features  of  Mt. 
Holyoke.    Further,  these  two  truths  are  one. 

Mary  Lyon  never  talked  much  of  woman's  rights ; 
she  said  very  little,  if  anything,  of  woman's  sphere. 
But  she  believed  in,  and  loved  to  dwell  on,  the  great 
work  a  woman  may  do  in  the  world.  And  she  was 
thoroughly  convinced  that  to  do  that  work  well  a 
girl  must  be  educated.     "  Oh,  how  immensely  im- 

71 


72  The  College  Girl  of  America 

portant  is  the  preparation  of  the  daughters  of  the 
land  to  be  good  mothers !  "  she  used  often  to  say. 
"  If  they  are  prepared  for  this  situation,  they  will 
have  the  most  important  preparation  which  they  can 
have  for  any  other."  Repeatedly  she  asserted,  with 
wisdom  far  in  advance  of  that  of  her  time,  that 
it  seemed  to  her  much  less  of  an  evil  that  farmers 
and  mechanics  have  scanty  stores  of  knowledge,  such 
as  our  common  schools  give,  than  that  their  wives, 
the  mothers  of  their  children,  should  be  uneducated. 
With  this  splendid  thought  in  her  heart,  she  and  her 
friends  came  together  and  laid  the  comer-stone  of 
Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary,  October  3,  1836,  having 
secured  by  arduous  and  well-nigh  heroic  labours 
the  nucleus  of  the  fund  necessary  to  the  launching 
of  her  high  enterprise.  Yet,  though  her  heart  was 
fixed,  her  spirit  was  humble;  we  read  that  she 
stooped  down  and  wrote  upon  the  corner-stone: 
"  The  Lord  hath  remembered  our  low  estate." 

After  another  year  which  represented  such  un- 
selfish devotion  to  her  prospective  school  as  may 
be  read  in  the  annals  of  no  other  educational  institu- 
tion, the  seminary  was  opened  for  the  reception  of 
pupils.  Often  then^  and  later,  Mary  Lyon  said  of 
Mt.  Holyoke,  "  Had  I  a  thousand  lives,  I  would 
sacrifice  them  all  in  suffering  and  hardship  for  its 
sake.     Did  I  possess  the  greatest  fortune,  I  could 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  73 

readily  relinquish  it  all  and  become  poor,  and  more 
than  poor,  if  its  prosperity  should  demand  it/' 

From  the  very  first,  Mt.  Holyoke  has  had  in  its 
make-up  respect  for  household  labour.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  observe  that  even  in  the  beginning  this  was 
considered  a  great  objection  by  many  friends  of  the 
seminary.  Miss  Lyon,  however,  defended  it  warmly. 
She  used  to  say  that  it  was  her  desire,  not  to  teach 
domestic  duties,  but  rather  to  help  girls  to  take, 
each  one,  a  daughter's  part  in  the  household,  and 
thus  promote  the  happiness  of  the  family.  "  All 
are  to  take  part,  not  as  a  servile  labour  for  which 
they  are  to  receive  a  small  weekly  remuneration,  but 
as  a  gratuitous  service  to  the  institution  of  which 
they  are  members,  designed  for  its  improvement 
and  elevation.  .  .  .  An  obliging  disposition  is  of 
special  importance  in  forming  a  lovely  social  and 
domestic  character.  Young  ladies  at  school,  with 
all  the  conveniences  and  comforts  which  they  should 
have,  and  with  all  the  benefits  of  study  which  they 
should  enjoy,  can  have  but  little  opportunity  for 
self-denial.  The  domestic  work  done  in  the 
varied  and  mutual  duties  of  the  day  furnishes 
many  little  chances  for  the  manifestation  of  a 
generous,  obliging,  and  self-denying  spirit,  the 
influence  of  which,  we  trust,  will  be  felt  through 
life.     It  also  helps  to  give  a  sense  of  obligation. 


74  The  College  Girl  of  America 

Domestic  life  is  little  else  but  a  continued  scene  of 
conferring  and  receiving  favours.  And  how  much 
of  happiness  depends  on  their  being  conferred  with 
the  manifest  evidence  of  a  willing  heart,  and  on 
their  being  received  with  suitable  tokens  of  grati- 
tude !  These  two  lovely  traits  go  hand  in  hand,  not 
often  to  be  separated.  The  formation  of  a  clmracter 
that  can  he  grateful  is  an  object  of  special  impor- 
tance in  a  lady's  education." 

That,  even  in  Mary  Lyon's  time,  however,  there 
were  other  things  at  Mt.  Holyoke  beside  study, 
prayer-meetings,  and  housework,  one  finds  from 
this  delicious  bit  of  circus  reminiscence  supplied 
by  Mrs.  Amelia  Stearns  of  the  class  of  '49 :  "  We 
were  admitted  to  the  show  at  half-price,  after 
having  been  especially  advised  by  Miss  Lyon 
to  improve  this  opportunity  to  see  the  elephant 
and  other  rare  specimens  of  animated  nature. 
She  made  but  one  restriction.  We  were  not  to 
stay  to  witness  the  performance,  but  when  we 
should  see  any  teacher  moving  toward  the  exit  we 
were  to  follow  her  at  once.  After  viewing  the 
animals  we  took  seats  while  the  elephants  marched 
around  the  amphitheatre.  One  with  a  howdah  on 
his  back  was  halted  near  us,  and  the  manager  called 
for  ladies  to  mount  and  ride.  Two  or  three  misses 
started  forward  and  then  drew  back  timidly,  until  a 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  75 

young  lady  of  the  senior  class,  with  head  erect  and 
fearless  mien,  walked  to  the  front,  climbed  the 
ladder,  and  seated  herself  as  if  she  were  an  Eastern 
princess  accustomed  to  take  her  airing  in  this  man- 
ner. There  was  a  whispering  among  the  juniors: 
*  What  a  bold,  bad  action  for  a  missionary's  daugh- 
ter !  How  dare  a  senior  set  us  such  an  example  ? ' 
Some  said  she  would  surely  be  suspended,  —  perhaps 
expelled.  Others  thought  she  might  be  let  off  with 
a  public  reprimand  if  duly  penitent.  It  was  believed 
that  the  sentiment  of  the  seminary  would  certainly 
demand  some  heroic  measure. 

"  The  great  beast  went  around  with  its  burden, 
the  senior  descended  safely  and  resumed  her  former 
seat,  unabashed.  Directly  a  tiger  leaped  from  its 
cage  and  rolled  over  and  over  with  its  keeper  in 
frightful  play.  The  performance  was  well  under 
way  or  ever  we  were  aware,  and  we  had  seen  no 
teachers  moving.  Bless  their  kind  hearts!  Was 
it  that  they  in  their  innocence  did  not  know  when  it 
was  time  to  start,  or  were  our  eyes  turned  away  from 
our  chaperons  and  holden,  that  we  should  not  see 
them?  When  all  was  over  and  we  went  out  with 
the  crowd,  we  spied  a  teacher  standing  near  the  gate, 
apparently  watching  for  stragglers,  but  we  passed 
by  on  the  other  side  without  a  challenge.  At  supper- 
time  all  the  lambs  were  secure  in  the  fold,  and  not 


76  The  College  Girl  of  America 

a  wolf  among  them.  We  never  heard  that  the  auda- 
cious senior  met  with  the  sHghtest  reproof  nor  lost 
caste  for  her  rash  exploit.  Miss  Lyon,  wise  as  Solo- 
mon, knew  when  to  keep  silence  and  when  to  speak." 

For  the  second  year  of  Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary, 
a  hundred  girls  were  admitted,  while  to  several  hun- 
dred Miss  Lyon  was  obliged  to  say,  "  There  is  no 
more  room."  Every  year  since,  the  same  thing  has 
been  repeated  to  large  numbers  of  girls,  and  this 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  are  many  college 
houses,  where  in  the  beginning  there  was  only  one. 
The  trustees  feel  that  it  is  quite  as  well  that  Mt. 
Holyoke  should  not  grow  to  be  too  large.  To-day 
there  are  seven  hundred  students,  and  to  develop 
high  Christian  character  in  seven  hundred  girls  is, 
perhaps,  all  that  may  well  be  undertaken  by  one 
humble-minded  institution  in  learning. 

Are  you  wondering  why,  with  so  many  other 
colleges  vainly  bidding  for  students,  Mt.  Holyoke 
has  to  turn  scores  of  girls  away  each  year?  It  is 
a  fair  question.  What  is  it,  then,  that  this  place  of 
ancient  and  worthy  name  now  offers  the  bright 
young  girl  who  is  deciding  where  she  will  spend 
the  four  years  which  are  to  give  her  an  all-around 
education  and  a  degree? 

At  its  inception,  of  course,  Mt.  Holyoke  cher- 
ished three  ideals,  —  first,  to  give  the  highest  and 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  77 

most  thorough  education  possible;  second,  to  com- 
bine with  cultivation  of  the  intellectual  powers  the 
no  less  careful  cultivation  of  the  spiritual  life,  basing 
such  culture  on  the  Bible,  and  teaching  that  all 
duties  should  seem  holy,  and  that  all  things  worth 
doing  should  be  done  thoroughly;  third,  to  offer 
advantages  at  such  a  modest  sum  that  girls  of  slender 
means  need  not  be  turned  aside  from  seeking  them 
by  money  considerations.  Well,  the  Mt.  Holyoke  of 
to-day  is  dominated  by  the  very  same  ideals.  Two 
generations  have  witnessed,  not  a  complete  re-crea- 
tion, but  a  gradual  expansion.  The  old  Mt.  Holyoke 
held  all  the  possibilities  of  the  new.  The  institution 
which  Mary  Lyon  founded  had  within  it  the  germ 
of  to-day's  splendid  twentieth-century  college.  Mt. 
Holyoke  of  old  was  able,  therefore,  to  expand  with- 
out friction,  without  revolution,  without  upheaval, 
into  the  composite  Mt.  Holyoke  of  to-day.  The 
seminary  was  built  upon  Christian  ideals  and  self- 
abnegation.  The  college  rests  on  exactly  the  same 
eternal  things. 

Of  course  times  have  changed,  and  the  piety  of 
1904  is  by  no  means  the  same  in  its  exterior  aspect 
as  the  piety  of  1840.  But  no  one  who  has  attended 
the  morning  service  in  the  chapel  has  failed  to 
understand  the  spirit  of  the  place  and  to  know  it  for 
the  same  spirit  which  Mary  Lyon  long  ago  im- 


78  The  College  Girl  of  America 

planted  in  the  hearts  of  Mt.  Holyoke  girls.  When, 
to  the  deep,  rich  tones  of  one  of  the  best  organs  in 
Massachusetts,  the  seniors,  stately  and  reverend  in 
their  sombre  symbols  of  academic  rank,  take  their 
seats  in  the  centre  of  the  chapel,  with  the  members 
of  the  faculty  at  the  left,  and  the  main  part  of  the 
big  room  given  over  to  the  undergraduates,  —  and 
the  sweet  and  beautiful  president,  in  a  rich  academic 
gown,  bows  her  head  in  silent  prayer,  one  feels  Mt. 
Holyoke  to  be  the  same  to-day  as  yesterday,  despite 
external  changes.  Thrilling  indeed  is  it  when  the 
students  rise  and  sing,  with  wonderful  heartiness, 
the  "  Holy,  Holy,  Holy  "  hymn.  Then  there  follows 
a  collect  or  two,  and  then  the  stirring  missionary 
anthem,  "We  March,  We  March  to  Victory." 
Responsive  reading,  a  Gloria,  a  Scripture  lesson,  and 
an  extemporaneous  prayer  referring  to  the  Bible 
message  of  the  day,  come  next.  The  short  service 
closes  with  the  lord's  Prayer,  in  which  all  share. 
After  that  the  seniors  file  slowly  out  to  the  strains 
of  an  inspiring  recessional.  The  beauty  of  this 
service,  its  peace,  its  sweetness,  its  strength,  fill 
every  visitor  to  Mt.  Holyoke  with  reverent  delight. 
A  wonderful  thing  is  it  to  begin  day  after  day  of  a 
college  year  with  such  an  exercise,  in  the  chapel  of 
the  noble  hall  named  after  Mary  Lyon. 

It  was  not  from  the  stately  morning  service,  how- 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  79 

ever,  but  from  something  deliciously,  almost  ludi- 
crously, different,  that  I  gained  my  own  first  im- 
pressions of  Mt.  Holyoke.  I  had  just  arrived  at 
the  college,  and  was  being  shown  about,  when  my 
attention  was  riveted  by  a  bulletin-board  covered 
with  the  most  extraordinary  notices :  "  Five  cents 
apiece  for  live  frogs  (body  three  inches  or  more), 
benefit  library  fund."  "  Shirt-waists  made  to  fit  for 
seventy-five  cents  —  for  Carnegie  offer."  "  Sham- 
pooing, thirty-five  cents,  including  tar  or  castile  soap. 
Others  must  be  supplied."  The  meaning  of  these 
curious  notices  on  the  ofBcial  bulletin-board  of 
Porter  Hall  was  soon  explained  by  my  guide.  They 
had  been  inspired,  it  appeared,  by  the  students'  desire 
to  raise  the  rather  large  sum  which  Mr.  Carnegie 
had  stipulated  as  a  condition  of  his  generous  offer 
for  a  new  library.  Of  course,  with  such  a  spirit 
as  this  to  help  it  on,  the  necessary  sum  will  be  forth- 
coming. 

First,  last,  and  always,  the  college  at  South 
Hadley  is  hospitable.  This  the  freshman  early 
learns,  for  as  soon  as  she  steps  upon  the  Holyoke 
platform  the  opening  day  of  the  college  year,  she  is 
cordially  greeted  by  a  member  of  the  Christian 
Association's  reception  committee,  helped  with  her 
suit-case,  guided  down  the  iron  stairway  to  the 
street  below,  and,  ere  her  new-found  friend  aban- 


So  The  College  Girl  of  America 

dons  her,  comfortably  settled  in  the  car  for  South 
Hadley.  When  the  car  stops  before  Mary  Lyon 
Chapel,  some  five  miles  out  of  Holyoke  city,  she  is 
again  greeted  by  a  smiling  upper-class  girl,  under 
whose  tutelage  she  registers,  receives  her  appoint- 
ment to  house  and  room,  and  really  begins  her  col- 
lege life. 

For  the  first  v^eek  that  life  is  a  veritable  whirl, 
with  its  wealth  of  new  experiences,  new  impressions, 
new  methods  of  work,  new  points  of  view.  But 
gradually  she  finds  her  place.  She  has  heard  a 
great  deal,  of  course,  about  the  "  housework  "  phase 
of  life  at  Mt.  Holyoke;  possibly  she  has  kicked 
against  it  rather  vigorously.  But  she  learns,  when 
she  comes  to  face  the  thing,  that  her  duties  are 
really  of  the  lightest  possible  kind,  and  have  been, 
so  far  as  feasible,  fitted  to  her  individual  capabilities. 
One  student  may  have  two  tables  to  clear  and  two 
to  lay;  another  may  have  some  post-office  service  to 
perform;  others  have  the  care  of  the  halls.  But 
there  is  nothing  which  need  occupy  more  than  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour  a  day  at  the  outside.  Every  girl, 
therefore,  has  plenty  of  time  at  Mt.  Holyoke  for 
play,  as  well  as  for  work,  for  sociability  as  well  as 
for  grind.  And  the  slight  housework  makes  it 
possible  to-day,  just  as  in  Mary  Lyon's  time,  for  a 
hall  accommodating  seventy  or  a  hundred  girls  to  be 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  8i 

conducted  quite  comfortably  with  very  few  servants, 
—  and  hence  at  a  minimum  of  expense.  This  is 
why  a  girl  can  go  to  Mt.  Holyoke  for  three  hundred 
dollars  a  year,  a  sum  at  least  one  hundred  dollars 
less  than  the  minimum  expense  in  any  other  first- 
class  Eastern  college  for  women. 

One  of  the  first  fine  facts  which  impresses  itself 
upon  the  freshman  is  the  realization  that  she  is  liv- 
ing, not  in  an  oligarchy  of  faculty,  —  though,  of 
course,  the  faculty  have  the  final  authority  here,  as 
elsewhere,  —  but  in  a  democracy  of  students.  For 
she  is  early  told  that  the  simple  rules  necessary  for 
the  regulation  of  life  in  such  a  large  community  are 
enforced  by  the  undergraduates  themselves,  that  the 
so-called  students'  league,  whereof  all  students  are 
members,  has  been  given  authority  by  the  faculty 
in  matters  concerning  chapel  attendance,  church- 
going,  quiet  hours,  and  the  rule  by  which  lights  are 
out  at  ten  o'clock.  She  discovers  that  the  president 
of  this  body  organized  "  to  promote  unity  and 
loyalty  in  the  college ;  good  feeling  between  faculty 
and  students;  and  to  encourage  personal  responsi- 
bility "  is  always  a  senior,  that  its  executive  com- 
mittee is  made  up  from  all  four  classes,  with  one 
additional  member  chosen  from  among  the  recent 
graduates  of  the  college,  and  that,  through  the  inter- 
action of  this  committee  and  a  committee  of  the 


82  The  College  Girl  of  America 

faculty,  students  and  professors  find  a  direct  means 
of  communication.  Each  house  has  a  chairman  and 
proctors  under  the  general  league  scheme,  and 
through  them  and  the  rebukes  they  may  be  called 
upon  to  administer,  when  she  and  her  fellow-class- 
men wax  hilarious,  the  new  girl  comes  to  know  what 
student  government  at  Mt.  Holyoke  really  means. 
Possibly  she  finds  this  out  by  a  note  reminding  her 
that  she  has  been  habitually  absent  from  chapel. 
She  hears  that  after  three  such  notes  a  girl  may  be 
put  off  the  campus.  She  hears  also  that  this 
measure  has  never  needed  to  be  enforced. 

The  Class  is  at  Mt.  Holyoke  the  chiefest  "  tie  that 
binds."  In  forming  the  basis  for  athletic  compe- 
titions, in  presenting  plays,  in  putting  through 
much  of  the  social  life,  and  part  of  the  literary 
enterprises  of  the  college,  it  is  a  unit  of  great  im- 
portance. It  is  particularly  desirable,  therefore,  that 
a  girl  shall  early  come  into  close  relations  with  the 
others  who  entered  with  her.  The  way  in  which 
this  is  often  effected  has  been  interestingly  described 
by  one  Mt.  Holyoke  girl  as  follows :  "  Some  even- 
ing in  early  fall,  as  the  freshman  is  *  plugging '  over 
her  *  math,'  she  hears  the  sound  of  distant  cheering; 
coloured  lights  flash  across  the  campus.  At  the 
house  next  her  own  a  crowd  of  girls  is  gathered, 
a  class  cheer  rings  out  clear  and  sweet  on  the  night 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  83 

air,  coupled  with  two  names  lustily  strung  on  at  the 
end;  another  cheer,  still  another,  and  finally  the 
freshman  catches  the  sound  of  her  own  class  numer- 
als, recognizes  them  with  a  sudden  and  joyous  sense 
of  proprietorship,  drops  the  '  math  '  books  she  is  still 
holding,  and  dashes  down  the  corridor  to  find  an- 
other freshman.  The  two  fling  up  a  window, 
excitedly,  and  lean  far  out,  squeezing  each  other's 
hands  with  an  unwonted  feeling  of  comradeship, 
as  the  merry,  stumbling  throng  of  seniors,  juniors, 
or  sophomores,  out  celebrating  their  class  elections 
of  the  afternoon,  hurry  toward  the  broad  veranda 
steps  and  again  break  into  an  improvised  freshman 
cheer.  Soon  after,  the  freshman  attends  her  first 
class-meeting,  called  by  the  junior  president,  and 
with  that  her  love  of  class  is  fully  established.  True, 
she  may  not  know  more  than  five  of  her  classmates 
even  by  name,  and  may  be  distinctly  grateful  to  the 
enterprising  young  woman  who  suggests  that  the 
candidates  for  class  chairman  stand  up,  that  the 
freshmen  may  find  out  who  they  are;  but,  never- 
theless, she  feels  already  the  passion  for  making 
19 —  admired  in  the  college  world.  And  chattering 
of  this,  she  links  her  arm  in  that  of  a  freshman  she 
has  never  seen  before,  and  hurries  to  make  known  to 
the  campus  the  doings  of  her  class." 

So  diverse  is  the  life  at  Mt.  Holyoke,  that  almost 


84  The  College  Girl  of  America 

every  girl  readily  finds  scope  somewhere  for  her 
particular  ability.  If  she  is  so  fortunate  as  to  have 
a  good  voice,  she  is  early  enrolled  in  the  vested 
choir,  becomes  the  proud  possessor  of  a  cotta,  and 
inclines  to  boast  a  bit,  in  her  letters  home,  of  her 
part  in  that  body  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  voices, 
the  largest  vested  choir  of  women  in  the  world. 
If  golf,  tennis,  rowing,  driving,  or  hockey  be  her 
favourite  sport,  she  finds  opportunity  to  distinguish 
herself  along  one  of  these  lines,  and  —  what  is  better 
still  —  is  given  credit  by  reason  of  her  activity 
toward  the  four  hours  of  exercise  required  each 
week. 

One  of  the  earliest  of  the  many  festivals  in  which 
she  shares  is  Mountain  Day,  in  the  fall,  when  the 
foliage  is  at  its  best  and  the  fringed  gentians  glori- 
ously decorate  the  green.  Peculiarly  appropriate  is 
it  that  Mt.  Holyoke  College,  which  is  named  after 
one  of  the  superb  peaks  in  the  Green  Mountain 
range  in  western  Massachusetts,  should,  each  year, 
speedily  pay  its  respects  to  the  everlasting  hills. 

Tramping  has  ever  been  one  of  the  favourite 
recreations  at  this  college.  The  beauty  of  the  region 
takes  away  all  the  monotony  of  just  going  out  for 
exercise,  for  within  fairly  easy  reach  are  a  dozen 
attractive  spots  familiar  to  every  Holyoke  woman. 
Whether  the  Bluffs,  the  Larches,  Titan's  Pier,  the 


THE    TENNIS  -  COURTS. 


A    PERFORMANCE   OF    "MIDSUMMER    NIGHT'S    DREAM." 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  85 

Pass  of  Thermopylae,  the  Notch,  the  Ferry,  Bitter 
Sweet  Lane,  or  Mountain  Pasture  be  selected,  in- 
spiration will  result.  Included  in  the  college  grounds 
is  Lake  Nonotuck,  well  supplied  with  boats,  which 
are  in  constant  demand.  The  same  lake  is  equally 
popular  in  winter  as  a  skating  ground,  the  slopes 
about  it  being  used  for  coasting  and  for  skeeying, 
a  much-liked  Norwegian  sport. 

Of  course  there  are  at  Mt.  Holyoke,  as  at  the 
other  colleges,  certain  "  set  feasts,"  which  come  with 
each  returning  season.  Founders'  Day  and  Thanks- 
giving are  especial  times  for  receiving  and  enter- 
taining guests.  A  very  pretty  custom  is  that  by 
which  former  students  come  back  to  their  Alma 
Mater  as  to  the  old  homestead  for  the  November 
day  of  solemn  thanks.  All  Hallowe'en  is  regularly 
celebrated  by  a  masked  ghost  party,  which  affords 
scope  for  whatever  originality  the  girls  possess. 
The  dining-halls  are,  for  this  occasion,  made  attract- 
ive with  flowers  and  autumn  fruits,  the  whole  effect 
softened  by  candle-light.  In  one  hall,  perhaps, 
ghosts  of  departed  days  eat  their  dinners  with  appe- 
tites astoundingly  unghostlike.  Later,  Mellen's 
Food  babies,  nuns,  dryads,  Quakers,  and  Canter- 
bury pilgrims  hobnob  noisily  in  the  attic  of  one  of 
the  dormitories,  while  alcohol  bums  on  salt  to  throw 


86  The  College  Girl  of  America 

a  weird  light  and  to  supply  the  proper  amount  of 
"  atmosphere." 

A  girl  possessed  of  dramatic  ability  speedily  comes 
into  her  own  at  Mt.  Holyoke.  The  dramatic  inter- 
ests of  the  college  are  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the 
different  classes,  to  each  of  which  is  allowed  a  certain 
number  of  performances  a  year.  Thus  the  sopho- 
mores have  one  play,  the  juniors  two,  and  the  seniors 
two,  annually.  All  the  plays  must,  however,  be  ap- 
proved, before  presentation,  by  a  standing  committee 
of  the  faculty,  to  see  that  in  the  matter  of  costume, 
and  so  forth,  they  are  all  that  they  should  be.  The 
plays  are  generally  acted  outdoors  on  Prospect  Hill, 
or  in  the  gymnasium,  where  there  is  a  good  stage; 
and  though  there  is  little  professional  training,  the 
dramas  offered  afford  universal  enjoyment  to  the 
audiences,  frequently  revealing,  too,  not  a  little 
talent  on  the  part  of  the  performers. 

On  May-day,  for  three  years  past,  in  the  wooded 
amphitheatre  of  Prospect  Hill,  have  been  given  old 
English  plays  and  pastimes  of  no  little  literary  im- 
portance. The  Elizabethan  audience,  as  well  as 
actor-folk,  here  appear,  games  of  the  period  also 
contributing  to  the  charm  and  colour  of  the  occa- 
sion. A  quaint  spectacle,  certainly,  for  these  modern 
times,  is  presented  by  the  procession  which,  on 
May-day  morning,  winds  up  Prospect  Hill  from 


MAY  -  DAY    PROCESSION. 


MAY -POLE    DANCE. 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  87 

the  gymnasium.  Preceding  the  May  queen  are 
lordly  heralds,  and  while  Robin  Hood  and  his 
merry  men  escort  the  damsel  fair,  Little  John  and 
Fair  Maid  Marian  follow  close  behind.  Beruffed 
and  powdered  ladies  and  gallants  of  Queen 
Elizabeth's  court  are  also  here,  as  are  morris- 
men,  milkmaids.  May-pole  dancers,  and  many  other 
fanciful  and  grotesque  characters.  When  the  pro- 
cession reaches  the  Pepper  Box,  as  the  curious  little 
lookout  at  the  top  of  the  hill  is  called,  it  halts  and 
divides,  forming  into  two  lines,  between  which  the 
May  queen  rides  in  state  to  the  Box-steps,  where  she 
is  helped  by  Robin  Hood  to  dismount,  and  is  sol- 
emnly crowned.  Then  follow  the  May-pole  dances, 
performed  by  Britanny  fisher  maidens,  to  the  shrill 
music  of  the  hornpipe;  a  Rainbow  Dance,  or  the 
Daisy  Dance,  symbolic  of  the  season,  with  twelve 
seniors  gowned  in  yellow  to  represent  the  middle  of 
the  flower,  twenty-four  in  white  for  the  petals,  and 
twelve  in  green  for  the  stem.  Music  for  this  fan- 
tastic tripping  is  usually  furnished  by  the  Mandolin 
Club.  On  one  occasion,  the  quaint  morality  play, 
"  Noah's  Flood,"  was  presented  after  the  dancing, 
with  an  exact  model  of  the  old  miracle  stage,  and 
with  the  unruly  and  boisterous  Elizabethan  audience 
duly  in  attendance.  By  six  o'clock  everybody  has 
a  good  appetite  for  supper,  served  in  picnic  fashion 


88  The  College  Girl  of  America 

on  the  green.  Then  the  evening  opens  with  Ehza- 
bethan  lyrics,  sung  by  the  choir.  These  are,  in  turn, 
followed  by  another  play.  Sometimes  this  has  been 
the  Florizel  and  Perdita  portion  of  "  Winter's  Tale,'' 
sometimes  a  scene  or  two  from  "  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream."  This  year  the  May  celebrations 
were  deferred  until  June,  and  the  Ben  Greet  com- 
pany secured  as  performers. 

In  accordance  with  the  original  plan  which  Mary 
Lyon's  far-seeing  wisdom  devised,  Mt.  Holyoke 
has  always  been  a  family,  as  well  as  a  school.  It 
has  a  beautiful  and  really  distinctive  home  atmos- 
phere. Mary  Lyon  believed  in  the  democratic  ideal, 
and  there  is  still  absolutely  no  favouritism  at  Mt. 
Holyoke.  The  rooms  are  distributed  by  lot,  so  that 
even  the  poorest  girls  have  their  chance  to  get  into 
the  most  attractive  residence  hall,  Mary  Brigham, 
in  which  the  president  lives.  Every  girl  has,  like- 
wise, a  perfectly  equal  opportunity  to  sit  at  the 
president's  table,  and  meet  the  many  distinguished 
people  who  come  to  Mt.  Holyoke  in  the  course  of 
the  year.  Dinner  at  Mary  Brigham  is  the  function 
of  the  day.  When  the  president  enters,  escorting  the 
guest  of  honour,  she  finds  each  girl  at  her  place, 
looking  very  fresh  and  attractive.  All  remain  stand- 
ing until  the  blessing  has  been  pronounced.  Then 
girls  who  have  been  appointed  quietly  withdraw  to 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  89 

take  their  part  in  the  domestic  arrangement.  The 
service  at  the  tables  is  excellent,  the  plates  being 
changed,  the  courses  brought  on,  and  the  meal  from 
soup  to  crackers  and  cheese  conducted  with  admi- 
rable precision.  Meanwhile  good  talk,  college  jokes, 
and  sparkling  repartee  go  on,  Miss  Woolley  from 
her  stately  chair,  presented  in  memory  of  President 
McKinley's  visit  to  Mt.  Holyoke,  gently  leading  the 
conversation  or  listening  appreciatively  to  a  bright 
story  which  some  one  down  at  the  end  has  volun- 
teered to  tell.  After  dinner  the  girls  frequently  come 
in  to  the  president's  pleasant  parlour  for  coffee  and 
an  informal  chat  before  separating  for  their  evening 
study. 

A  great  deal  might  be  said  of  the  admirable 
courses  at  Mt.  Holyoke.  But  it  seems  feasible  to 
discuss  here  only  two  or  three  of  the  more  remark- 
able departments.  Under  this  head  should  certainly 
be  included  the  work  carried  on  in  the  Dwight  Art 
Building,  under  the  able  direction  of  Miss  Jewett, 
who  came  to  Mt.  Holyoke  a  few  years  ago  straight 
from  advanced  work  with  Benjamin  Constant, 
Julien,  and  LeFevre  in  Paris.  The  building  is  on  the 
site  of  the  one  hundred  years'  old  Dwight  homestead, 
and,  if  only  because  of  its  glorious  view  toward 
Beulahland  and  the  Mt.  Tom  and  Mt.  Holyoke 
ranges,   should  inspire  those  who  work   in   it  to 


90  The  College  Girl  of  America 

artistic  appreciation.  An  especially  attractive  course 
given  here  is  that  in  the  history  of  art,  with  practice 
in  drawing  to  help  the  girl  to  an  appreciation  of  the 
masters  studied. 

Many  a  girl  who  does  not  in  the  least  know  how 
to  draw  upon  registering  for  this  course  comes 
through,  as  a  result  of  careful  teaching,  with  a  de- 
cided sense  of  form,  as  well  as  with  a  serviceable 
knowledge  of  the  masters  and  periods  covered. 
Instead  of  an  examination,  there  is,  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  an  imaginary  trip  to  the  galleries  of  Europe, 
with  a  certain  number  of  cities  and  a  certain  number 
of  pictures  covered.  A  satisfactory  showing  in  this 
test  implies  ability  to  do  original  description,  as  well 
as  such  familiarity  with  the  books  read  in  the  course 
of  the  year  as  enables  a  girl  to  cite  a  characteristic 
quotation  from  the  critics.  Thus  the  art  work  at 
Mt.  Holyoke  is  all  related  to  history  and  to  life  in 
a  fashion  at  once  fine  and  inspiring. 

Similarly,  a  debating  society,  more  or  less  con- 
nected with  an  American  history  course,  really  dis- 
cusses current  politics.  What  is  more,  a  regular 
political  campaign  is  carried  on  at  Mt.  Holyoke 
every  four  years!  This  custom  was  instituted  at 
the  time  of  Lincoln's  election,  and  ever  since  it  has 
excited  much  outside  interest.  The  college  repre- 
sents the  nation,  and  each  campus-house  a  State. 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  91 

Party  organization  is  modelled  directly  on  political 
lines;  the  national  Republican  and  national  Demo- 
cratic committees  order  the  campaign;  State  con- 
ventions, regularly  called,  elect  delegates  to  the 
national.  Armed  with  badges  and  credentials,  the 
delegates,  often  escorted  by  enthusiastic  constituents, 
present  themselves  at  these  conventions  held  in  the 
gymnasium,  which  is  hung  with  flags  and  bunting 
for  the  occasion.  The  speeches  then  made  are  per- 
fectly serious,  and  reflect  a  remarkable  familiarity 
on  the  students'  part  with  political  figures  and 
party  protestations.  The  last  time  the  mock-con- 
vention was  held,  the  New  York  delegation  was 
especially  prominent,  each  of  the  ten  girls  which 
made  it  up  having  the  words  New  York  arranged 
diagonally  across  their  breasts.  When  the  platform 
as  adopted  at  the  regular  Republican  convention  was 
read,  all  listened  patiently,  duly  applauding  sound 
money,  and  loyally  hissing  democracy  and  free 
silver.  Then  this  declaration  with  all  its  "  planks  " 
was  promptly  accepted;  and,  as  the  ten  o'clock  bell 
had  sounded,  the  delegates  scampered  home  to  bed. 
Next  day  a  ratification  parade  was  enjoyed,  the 
village  bass  drum,  five  transparencies,  and  fifty 
torch-bearers  being  in  line.  The  captains  of  the 
evening  wore  red,  white,  and  blue  uniforms,  while 
the  other  girls,  who  carried  Japanese  lanterns  swing- 


92  The  College  Girl  of  America 

ing  on  sticks,  were  in  sailor  suits.  Stump  speeches 
were  made  at  intervals  and  red  lemonade  and  pea- 
nut balls  were  served  between  the  acts.  The  voting 
itself  was  done  regularly  later,  ballots  being  printed, 
booths  set  up  in  Assembly  Hall,  and  the  specified 
hours  observed. 

At  Mt.  Holyoke,  as  at  Smith,  the  biggest  event 
of  each  year  is  the  "  junior  prom,"  the  last  function 
of  the  Washington's  Birthday  season,  to  which  the 
juniors  invite  the  senior  class.  The  gymnasium, 
transformed  for  the  night,  by  the  decorator's  art, 
into  a  hall  of  unusual  and  delicate  beauty,  is 
thronged  by  the  two  classes  and  their  friends.  But 
forlorn,  indeed,  as  one  may  see  from  this  "  Junior's 
Lament,"  in  a  recent  Llamaradq^  is  the  girl  who 
lacks  a  man  guest  on  this  occasion  : 

"  My  gown  is  spread  out  in  all  its  glory, 
Just  a  frou-frou  of  ribbons  and  lace ; 
I've  the  newest  of  gloves  and  of  slippers, 
Yet  there's  nothing  but  woe  on  my  face. 
There's  no  joy  to  be  found  in  my  toilet, 
Though  my  hair  has  its  prettiest  curl, 
For  to-night  is  the  night  of  the  Junior  Prom, 
And  I  am  a  manless  girl. 

"  Through  the  first  and  last  proms  and  the  supper 
I  must  sit  in  my  sadness  alone, 
Ah,  men  are  uncertain  mortals, 
And  mine  has  a  heart  of  stone. 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  93 

He  '  regrets,'  and  has  sent  me  roses 
And  a  dear  litde  pin  of  pearl ; 
But  what  do  I  care  for  such  trifles 
When  I  am  a  manless  girl  ? 

« I'd  rather  be  called  on  in  Ethics, 
Or  make  up  my  cuts  in  the  gym, 
Or  be  flunked  in  my  major  subject 
And  sat  on  by  faculty  grim ; 
*Twere  better  to  struggle  with  daily  themes, 
Though  they  set  my  poor  brain  in  a  whirl. 
Than  at  the  event  of  the  season 
To  appear  as  a  manless  girl." 

But  of  course  it  is  in  Commencement  Week  that 
gaiety  at  Mt.  Holyoke  reaches  its  cHmax.  Two  fea- 
tures of  this  only  will  be  described.  But  these, 
because  peculiar  to  the  college,  are  distinctly  interest- 
ing. The  first  is  the  grove  exercise  on  Monday 
morning,  when  the  seniors,  all  in  white,  bearing 
ropes  of  laurel  and  bunches  of  forget-me-nots,  make 
their  way  through  the  stately  trees  from  Safford 
Hall  to  the  quiet  grave  of  the  founder  of  Mt.  Hol- 
yoke. With  tribute  of  song  and  flowers,  they  place 
their  wreaths  upon  the  simple  white  monument 
which  reads  on  one  side: 

"MARY   LYON 
"  The  founder  of  Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary,  and  for 
twelve  years  its  principal;   a  teacher  for  thirty-five 


94  The  College  Girl  of  America 

years,  and  of  more  than  three  thousand  pupils. 
Bom,  February  28th,  1797.  Died,  March  5th,  1849." 
And  on  the  other  side :  "  There  is  nothing  in  the 
universe  that  I  fear,  but  that  I  shall  not  know  all 
my  duty  or  shall  fail  to  do  it." 

The  second  annual  feature  is  the  step  exercise. 
In  the  late  afternoon  before  Commencement  Day, 
the  seniors  gather  upon  the  steps  of  Williston  Hall, 
revered  by  college  custom  as  their  peculiar  property, 
and  there,  in  the  presence  of  friends  and  under- 
graduates, make  known  their  last  will,  duly  attested 
and  signed;  sing  again  familiar  college  songs,  and 
finally,  at  the  last  verse  of  the  senior  step-song,  re- 
move the  academic  cap,  the  symbol  of  their  seniority, 
and  slowly  and  reluctantly  resign  the  steps  to  the 
juniors.  To  the  junior  president  the  senior  presi- 
dent, as  she  passes,  gives  cap  and  gown,  receiving,  in 
return,  an  armful  of  her  own  class  flowers. 

Yet  the  pangs  of  the  beginning  of  the  end  have 
really  been  experienced  some  time  before  in  senior 
Mountain  Day.  For  more  than  thirty  years  each 
class  has  held  its  farewell  festivity  at  the  Prospect 
House  on  top  of  the  mountain  from  which  the  col- 
lege takes  its  name.  Thither  on  an  afternoon  early 
in  senior  vacation,  barges  carry  the  whole  class  with 
its  baggage.  And  then  for  a  day  and  a  night  a 
good  time  is  enjoyed.    Toasts  follow  each  meal,  and 


Mt.  Holyoke  College  95 

dancing  and  "  stunts  "  (the  latter  comprising  selec- 
tions from  all  the  famous  enterprises  both  of  the 
class  and  of  its  individual  members)  occupy  the 
evening,  until  the  hour  comes  for  the  midnight  class- 
meeting  with  its  rapid  review  of  college  years. 
Next  morning  the  typical  Mt.  Holyoke  girl  is  up  to 
see  the  sun  rise.  And  it  is  the  thought  of  this,  her 
last  glorious  experience  upon  the  mountain,  that 
the  senior  carries  off  with  her  as  the  most  precious 
of  her  college  memories. 


RADCLIFFE   COLLEGE 

The  chief  claim  of  Radcliffe  College  to  the  atten- 
tion of  feminine  America  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  pro- 
vides for  girls  Harvard  courses  conducted  by- 
Harvard  instructors.  President  Eliot  himself  has 
been  pleased  to  call  the  work  carried  on  at  Fay 
House,  Cambridge,  "  the  most  intelligently  directed 
effort  in  the  country  "  for  the  higher  education  of 
women.  Thus,  though  in  the  nature  of  things 
Radcliffe  girls  must  forego  many  of  the  pleasant 
social  features  that  give  decided  charm  to  student  life 
at  other  colleges  for  women,  they  have  their  reward. 

It  is  now  more  than  twenty-five  years  since  the 
first  steps  were  taken  toward  opening  the  privileges 
of  Harvard  University  to  women.  In  the  autumn  of 
1878  it  was  proposed  that  the  instructors  of  Harvard 
University  should  unofficially  give  to  women  some 
opportunity  for  systematic  study  in  courses  par- 
allel to  those  of  the  university.  Cambridge,  like 
many  other  communities,  had  been  feeling  for  some 
years  the  pulse  of  the  movement  toward  the  higher 
education  for  women,  and  in  the  decade  preceding 

96 


A    RADCLIFFE    GIRL. 


Radcliffe  College  97 

1880  the  pressure  became  considerable.  This  move- 
ment had  made  such  rapid  progress  in  other  parts  of 
the  country  as  to  throw  open  to  girls  the  privileges 
of  many  a  large  men's  college.  But  in  New  England 
its  advocates  were  not  able  to  force  their  convictions 
upon  the  trustees  of  colleges  for  men.  And  Har- 
vard was  especially  conservative  in  its  attitude 
toward  the  subject. 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  who  first  dared  suggest  that 
women  ought  to  be  admitted  to  full  Harvard  privi- 
leges. We  do  know,  however,  that,  before  her 
marriage,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  sent  in  an  appli- 
cation to  the  Harvard  corporation  for  permission 
to  study  in  the  college.  It  goes  without  saying  that 
her  request  was  refused.  None  the  less,  efforts  to 
break  down  the  barriers  were  constantly  repeated 
during  the  next  forty  years.  Nothing  definite  was 
done,  however,  to  smooth  the  path  of  the  ambitious 
girl  student  until,  in  the  year  1878,  the  admirable 
progress  made  by  Miss  Leach  —  who,  after  under- 
taking systematic  work  in  Cambridge  under  certain 
Harvard  professors,  acquitted  herself  with  such 
credit  as  soon  to  win  the  Greek  chair  at  Vassar 
College  —  showed,  with  arresting  clearness,  that 
women  could  pursue  Harvard  courses  successfully. 
This  emboldened  a  group  of  ladies  and  gentleman, 
already  interested  in  the  subject,  to  try  and  arrange 


98  The  College  Girl  of  America 

for  women  some  systematic  courses  of  Harvard  in- 
struction. When  President  Eliot  was  consulted  in 
the  matter  he  not  only  did  not  discourage  those  ad- 
vocating this  departure,  but  was  even  willing  to  give 
advice  as  to  methods.  Many  Harvard  professors, 
also,  were  ready  and  glad  to  repeat  their  courses  to 
women.  Thus  the  committee  in  charge  was  able  to 
issue,  Feb.  22^  1879,  a  preliminary  circular,  signed 
by  Mrs.  Louis  Agassiz,  Mrs.  E.  W.  Gurney,  Mrs. 
J.  P.  Cooke,  Mrs.  J.  B.  Greenough,  Mrs.  Arthur 
Gilman,  Miss  Alice  M.  Longfellow,  and  Miss  Lilian 
Horford,  —  with  Mr.  Arthur  Gilman  as  secretary, 
—  which  contained  the  following  statement : 

"  A  number  of  professors  and  other  instructors 
of  Harvard  College  have  consented  to  give  private 
tuition  to  properly  qualified  young  women  who 
desire  to  pursue  advanced  courses  of  study  in  Cam- 
bridge. Other  professors,  whose  occupations  prevent 
them  from  giving  such  tuition,  are  willing  to  assist 
young  women  by  advice  and  by  lectures.  No  in- 
struction will  be  provided  of  a  lower  grade  than  that 
given  in  Harvard  College/' 

In  the  promise  of  this  last  sentence  lies  to-day,  as 
at  the  beginning,  Radcliffe's  chief  claim  to  the  con- 
sideration of  scholars.  From  the  very  first  the 
faculty  of  the  new  institution  —  so  soon  to  be 
known  as  the  Harvard  Annex,  in  spite  of  the  fact 


Radcliffe  College  99 

that  it  was  early  provided  with  the  imposing  title, 
"  The  Society  for  the  Collegiate  Instruction  of 
Women"  —  comprised  many  of  the  best-known 
members  of  the  Harvard  faculty.  And  to-day 
there  is  scarcely  any  course  offered  at  Harvard 
which  cannot  be  had  at  Radcliffe,  if  desired  by  even 
a  small  number  of  young  women.  Harvard  in- 
structors having  thus  agreed  to  give  the  teaching, 
the  practical  arrangements  for  the  lectures  were 
undertaken  by  several  Cambridge  ladies,  under  the 
lead  of  Mrs.  Louis  Agassiz,  who,  from  that  time  to 
the  present,  has  been  the  always-efficient  head  of 
this  undertaking. 

As  the  Annex  from  the  first  was  to  depend  for 
its  success  largely  on  the  benevolence  of  Harvard 
instructors,  it  had  to  be  located  near  the  college. 
And  as  it  had  a  very  small  sum  of  money,  as  well 
as  few  students  at  the  start,  it  set  up  housekeeping 
in  two  rooms  of  an  unpretending  wooden  residence 
in  the  Appian  Way,  Cambridge.  The  name  of  this 
thoroughfare  is  delightfully  satiric,  in  that  the  short, 
narrow,  scantily-shaded  street  bears  no  resemblance 
whatever  to  the  classic  Via  Appia,  But  one  advan- 
tage it  certainly  does  have,  it  is  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  that  most  important  of  Cambridge  land- 
marks, the  Washington  Elm.    And  because  its  first 


100  The  College  Girl  of  America 

home  was  in  the  Appian  Way,  Raddiffe  now  owns 
one  of  the  most  valuable  corners  in  Cambridge. 

Probably  in  all  the  history  of  colleges  in  America 
there  could  not  be  found  a  story  so  full  of  colour  and 
interest  as  that  of  the  beginning  of  this  woman's 
college.  The  bathroom  of  the  little  wooden  house 
was  pressed  into  service  as  a  laboratory  for  physics, 
students  and  instructors  alike  making  the  best  of 
all  inconveniences.  Because  the  institution  was 
housed  with  a  private  family,  generous  mothering 
was  given  to  the  girls  when  they  needed  it.  And 
every  hour  of  the  working-day  found  the  little  rooms 
occupied.  For  though  the  classes  were  all  small,  — 
averaging  only  three  or  four  members,  —  there  were 
very  many  classes  even  at  the  first. 

In  the  early  days  each  Annex  student  knew  every 
other  student  by  sight,  if  not  personally,  and  the 
sociability  that  resulted  from  this  necessarily  close 
contact  knit  many  an  enduring  bond  of  friendship. 
It  was  then  practicable  for  any  one  of  hospitable 
intent  to  entertain  the  whole  body  of  students  at 
once.  "  We  all,"  Miss  Helen  Leah  Reed  has  written,^ 
"  have  long-lingering  remembrances  of  afternoon 
teas  and  other  pleasant  hospitality  extended  to  the 
women  by  the  ladies  of  the  management,  or  by  the 
wives  of  the  professors.    In  this  way  the  girls  were 

1  New  England  Magazine, 


Radcliffe  College/     ;,  ^    :  /   lojt^ 

given  many  opportunities  of  meeting  their  instruct- 
ors socially,  and  of  making  the  acquaintance  of 
Cambridge  people  in  general.  No  Commencement, 
however  brilliant  the  future  of  Radcliffe  College  may 
be,  will  have  for  the  older  graduates  the  interest  of 
that  first  Commencement,  held  in  the  beautiful  house 
of  those  warm  and  ever-lamented  friends  of  the 
Annex,  Professor  and  Mrs.  Gumey.  Only  second 
in  interest  was  the  later  Commencement  when  Mrs. 
Agassiz  threw  open  her  house  to  students.  And,  in 
1890,  Miss  Alice  Longfellow,  who  had  often  before 
entertained  Annex  students  within  the  charmed 
doors  of  Craigie  House,  gave  the  girls  and  their 
friends  the  pleasure  of  a  Commencement  in  Long- 
fellow's home." 

It  was  not  until  the  year  1894  that  the  Annex 
entered  into  a  declared  connection  with  the  uni- 
versity. It  had  by  this  time  become  plain  that  the 
departure  had  passed  the  experimental  stage,  and 
was,  therefore,  entitled  to  some  formal  recognition. 
What  shape  this  should  take  was,  however,  a  ques- 
tion with  many  difficulties.  No  one  wanted  to  in- 
corporate the  Annex  bodily  into  the  university,  and 
mingle  its  students  with  the  young  men.  It  was 
plain  that  the  girls  must  be  separately  cared  for  by 
a  board  composed  in  part,  at  least,  of  women. 
Furthermore,  Harvard  was  unwilling  to  undertake 

OF   THC      ■ 


102  The  College  Girl  of  America 

the  care  of  another  enterprise.  Because  of  these 
considerations,  a  separate  organization,  formally 
independent,  and  bearing  its  own  title,  Radcliffe 
College,  was  finally  evolved. 

The  choice  of  this  distinctive  name  came  as  the 
result  of  an  interesting  coincidence.  In  1641  the 
colonists  of  Massachusetts  sent  to  England  a  com- 
mittee, which,  along  with  other  business  for  the 
colony,  sought  contributions  in  aid  of  education. 
One  member  of  this  committee,  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Weld,  inscribed  in  his  report,  under  the  heading, 
"  What  I  received  for  the  College  and  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Learning,"  this  entry :  ''  The  lady 
Moulshan  gave  me  for  a  scholarship  £100,  the  rev- 
enue to  be  employed  that  way  forever,  for  which  I 
entered  covenant  and  am  bound  to  have  it  per- 
formed." By  a  curious  mistake,  however,  this 
money  was  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  colony,  and 
it  was  not  until  171 3  that  the  college  succeeded  in 
securing  entire  control  of  it.  Then  the  whole  mat- 
ter slumbered,  and  the  fund  fell  into  desuetude  until 
January  30,  1893,  when,  by  vote  of  the  president 
and  fellows  of  Harvard  College,  the  sum  of  $5,000 
was  put  apart  for  the  Lady  Moulshan  scholarship 
fund.  The  lady  herself  was  identified  about  this 
time  as  the  wife  of  Sir  Thomas  Moulshan,  Lord 
Mayor  of  London,  and  her  maiden  name  was  found 


Radcliffe  College  103 

to  be  Ann  Radcliffe.  Both  she  and  Sir  Thomas, 
her  husband,  seem  to  have  been  remarkably  benevo- 
lent and  worthy  people.  Sir  Thomas  had  been  bom 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  at  Har- 
grave,  and  had  married  Ann  Radcliffe  in  1600. 
Their  one  daughter,  Mary,  had  died  in  infancy,  and 
the  couple,  left  as  they  were  without  children  of  their 
own,  were  filled  with  a  great  zeal  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  education  of  boys  and  girls.  In  1624 
Sir  Thomas  was  chosen  sheriff  of  London,  and  in 
1627,  having  prospered  in  his  business,  he  founded 
at  Hargrave,  his  birthplace,  a  chapel  and  school. 
This  school,  "  for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  gram- 
mar and  virtue,"  is  still  in  existence,  and  has  been 
incorporated  in  the  government  school  system  of 
England. 

Lady  Moulshan  and  her  husband  lived  quietly 
in  London  from  1608  until  1638,  and  toward  the  end 
of  this  time  (1634)  the  worthy  lord  mayor  was 
knighted  at  Greenwich.  In  1638  he  died,  leaving 
to  his  wife  half  of  his  fortune  after  his  debts  had 
been  paid.  Thus  the  wealthy  widow  could  very 
well  afford  to  give  Thomas  Weld  the  generous  gift 
he  bore  back  with  him.  But  it  is  far  more  interest- 
ing that  she  wished  to  help  Harvard,  than  that  she 
was  able  to  do  so.  By  the  original  terms  of  the  gift, 
Lady  Moulshan  was  to  have  had  a  voice  in  the  ap- 


104  The  College  Girl  of  America 

pointment  of  the  beneficiary,  but,  so  far  as  known, 
she  never  took  advantage  of  this  right.  She  was 
buried  Nov.  i,  1661,  beside  her  husband,  in  the  vault 
of  St.  Christopher,  within  that  square  mile  in  Lon- 
don which  may  be  said  to  dictate  the  finances  of  the 
world.  A  wise,  prudent,  and  generous  woman  was 
Ann  Radcliffe,  and  it  is  a  fitting  tribute  to  her  mem- 
ory that  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  her 
scholarship  gift  to  Harvard,  the  first  ever  made  to  an 
American  college  by  a  woman,  the  Harvard  Annex 
should  have  adopted  for  its  title  her  maiden  name. 
The  seal  of  the  girls'  college,  it  is  further  interesting 
to  note,  bears  a  very  close  relationship  to  the  Rad- 
cliffe  arms. 

Provided  with  a  name,  and  having  already  ob- 
tained a  local  habitation  in  beautiful  Fay  House,  — 
purchased  in  1886  when  the  hired  rooms  on  Appian 
Way  no  longer  sufficed  for  the  growing  classes,  — 
the  college  was  now  ready  really  to  fill  the  place  for 
which  it  had  amply  qualified.  It  was  inevitable  that 
its  social  life  should  now  expand  and  become  con- 
stantly more  gracious.  For  Fay  House  is  exceed- 
ingly picturesque,  and,  though  not  colonial,  has 
every  appearance  of  so  being.  One  room  has  an 
historic  value  even  for  Harvard  students!  For 
within  its  walls  Rev.  Samuel  Gilman,  while  a  guest 
of  the  house,  composed,  in  1836,  the  words  of  the 


Radcliffe  College  105 

song  "  Fair  Harvard,"  which,  set  to  an  old  Eng- 
Hsh  melody,  was  at  once  adopted  as  the  Harvard 
College  song.  Of  other  treasured  memories  Fay 
House  has  many.  Edward  Everett  lived  here  for 
a  time,  and  here  the  granddaughter  of  Chief  Justice 
Dana,  our  first  minister  to  Russia,  kept  a  boarding 
and  day  school  for  young  ladies,  numbering  among 
her  pupils  the  sisters  of  James  Russell  Lowell  and 
many  another  member  of  distinguished  Cambridge 
families.  Lowell  himself  and  Edmund  Dana  at- 
tended here  for  a  term  as  a  special  privilege.  Sophia 
Dana  was  married  in  the  house  August  22,  1827, 
by  the  father  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  to  Mr. 
George  Ripley,  with  whom  she  afterward  took  an 
active  part  in  the  Brook  Farm  colony. 

Delightful  reminiscences  of  Fay  House  have  been 
furnished  us  by  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson, 
who,  as  a  boy,  was  often  in  and  out  of  the  place 
visiting  his  aunt,  Mrs.  Channing,  who  lived  here 
with  her  son,  William  Henry  Channing,  the  well- 
known  antislavery  orator.  Here  Higginson,  as  a 
youth,  used  to  listen  with  keenest  pleasure  to  the 
singing  of  his  cousin,  Lucy  Channing,  especially 
when  the  song  she  chose  was  "  The  Mistletoe  Hung 
in  the  Castle  Hall,"  the  story  of  a  bride  shut 
up  in  a  chest.  "  I  used  firmly  to  believe,"  the  genial 
colonel  confessed  one  evening  to  Radcliffe  girls,  in 


io6  The  College  Girl  of  America 

reviving  for  us  his  memories  of  the  house,  "  that 
there  was  a  bride  shut  up  in  the  wall  of  Fay  House 
—  and  there  may  be  to-day  for  all  I  know."  Very 
happy  times  were  those  which  the  young  Wentworth 
Higginson,  then  a  college  boy,  living  with  his  mother 
at  Vaughan  House  (now  one  of  the  Radcliffe  build- 
ings also),  was  privileged  to  share  with  Maria  Fay 
and  her  friends.  Who  of  us  does  not  envy  him  the 
memory  of  that  Christmas  party  in  184 1,  when 
there  were  gathered  in  Fay  House,  among  others, 
Maria  White,  Lowell's  beautiful  fiancee;  Levi 
Thaxter,  afterward  the  husband  of  Celia  Thaxter; 
Leverett  Saltonstall,  Mary  Story,  and  William  Story, 
the  sculptor?  How  pleasant  it  must  have  been  to 
join  in  the  famous  charades  of  that  circle  of  talented 
young  people,  to  partake  of  refreshments  in  the 
quaint  dining-room,  to  dance  the  Virginia  reel  and 
galop  in  the  beautiful  oval  parlour  which  then,  as 
to-day,  expressed  ideally  the  acme  of  charming  hos- 
pitality !  ^ 

From  among  the  present  writer's  own  memories 
of  pretty  happenings  in  Fay  House  parlour,  the  fol- 
lowing is  selected  as  typical  of  Radcliffe  life: 
During  one  of  Duse's  tours  of  this  country,  the 
famous  actress  came  out,  as  many  a  distinguished 
personage  does,  to  drink  a  cup  of  tea  with  Mrs. 
» "  The  Romance  of  Old  New  England  Roof-Trees." 


A    COEDUCATED    GIRL    OF    THE 
WEST. 


Radcliffe  College  107 

Agassiz  in  the  stately  old  parlour,  where  Mrs. 
Whitman's  famous  portrait  of  the  first  president 
of  Radcliffe  College  vies  in  attractiveness  with  the 
living  reality,  graciously  presiding  over  the  Wednes- 
day afternoon  teacups.  As  it  happened,  there  was 
scant  attendance  at  the  tea  on  this  day  of  Duse's 
visit.  She  had  not  been  expected.  And  so  it  fell 
out  that  some  two  or  three  girls  who  could  speak 
French  or  Italian  were  privileged  to  do  the  honours 
of  the  occasion  to  the  great  actress  whom  they  had 
long  worshipped  from  afar.  Duse  was  in  one  of  her 
most  charming  moods,  and  she  listened  with  marked 
attention  to  her  hostesses'  laboured  explanations 
concerning  the  college  and  its  historic  home. 

From  the  enthusiastic  girl-students'  point  of  view, 
however,  the  best  of  it  all  came  when  the  dark-eyed 
Italienne  said  farewell.  For,  as  she  entered  her 
carriage  —  to  which  she  had  been  escorted  by  this 
little  group  —  she  took  from  her  belt  a  beautiful 
bouquet  of  roses,  camellias,  and  violets,  and,  as  the 
smart  coachman  flicked  the  impatient  horses  with 
his  whip,  threw  the  girls  the  precious  flowers.  Those 
who  caught  a  camellia  felt,  of  course,  especially  de- 
lighted, for  it  was  as  the  Dame  aux  Camellias  that 
Duse  had  been  winning  for  weeks  the  plaudits  of 
admiring  Boston.  My  own  share  of  the  largesse 
consisted  of  a  few  fresh,  sweet  violets,  which  I  still 


io8  The  College  Girl  of  America 

h:ive  tucked  away  somewhere,  together  with  one  of 
the  great  actress's  photographs  bearing  the  date  of 
her  visit  to  Radchffe. 

With  another  distinguished  foreign  actress,  no 
less  a  person  than  Bernhardt,  my  college  memories 
are  also  very  pleasurably  connected.  For  it  was  dur- 
ing my  sophomore  year  at  Radcliffe  that  the  wonder- 
ful Sarah,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  French  depart- 
ment of  the  university,  gave  a  special  j>erformance 
of  Racine's  "  Phedre "  for  the  Harvard  men  and 
Radcliffe  girls  who  had  just  been  reading  the  play 
in  their  French  courses.  Never  have  I  shared  in  a 
more  brilliant  evening.  To  see  a  tragedy  so  sublime 
as  is  this  one  performed  by  the  leading  actress  of  the 
world,  just  at  a  time  when  every  word  of  the  text, 
every  nuance  of  the  author's  meaning  is  familiar, 
implies  such  intellectual  delight  as  comes  to  one  but 
seldom  in  a  lifetime.  Something  like  the  same 
experience  was  vouchsafed  to  Radcliffe  when 
"  Athalie  "  was  given  at  Sanders  Theatre  with  the 
Mendelssohn  music  supplied  by  the  Boston  Sym- 
phony Orchestra.  On  this  occasion,  moreover,  the 
girls'  college  had  a  very  vital  stake  in  the  perform- 
ance, for  two  of  the  prominent  parts  were  taken  by 
Radcliffe  undergraduates. 

Now  it  is  because  Radcliffe  is  always  given  a 
generous  share  of  such  splendid  opportunities  as 


Radcliffe  College  109 

these,  —  besides  having  her  part  in  the  work- 
aday aspect  of  Harvard's  Hfe,  —  that  the  college 
is  not  in  the  least  disposed  to  quarrel  with  the  uni- 
versity. Some  anxiety  has  been  expressed  by  eager 
advocates  of  women's  education  because  Harvard 
has  never  made  a  formal  contract  with  Radcliffe, 
specifying  in  what  way  it  will  exercise  its  powers, 
enumerating  the  privileges  it  will  give  to  women, 
or  at  least  fixing  a  time  during  which  it  will  surely 
abide  by  the  present  arrangement.  But  the  want 
of  definite  articles  of  agreement  is  by  no  means  a 
ground  of  apprehension  to  those  who  know  the  his- 
tory of  the  Annex,  and  appreciate  how  fully  it  is 
already  a  part  of  the  university,  through  adoption  by 
the  faculty.  When,  some  twelve  months  ago,  Mrs. 
Louis  Agassiz  felt  obliged,  because  of  advancing 
years,  to  resign  the  active  presidency  of  Radcliffe,  — 
which  office  she  had  so  graciously  and  ably  filled,  — 
it  was  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  Dean 
Le  Baron  Briggs  of  the  Harvard  faculty  to  be 
chosen  President  Briggs  of  Radcliffe  College;  nor 
was  there  any  question  whatever  about  his  acceptance 
of  the  honour  and  responsibility.  Though  the  cor- 
poration of  Harvard  College  has  never  agreed  to 
bestow  the  Harvard  degree  upon  Radcliffe,  the 
President  of  Harvard  University  is  always  present 
at  Radcliffe  Commencements,  and  the  degree  which 


no  The  College  Girl  of  America 

is  bestowed  bears  the  Harvard,  as  well  as  the  Rad- 
cliffe,  seal.  Moreover,  President  Eliot  there  certi- 
fies in  formal  Latin  over  his  own  signature  not  only 
that  the  student  receiving  this  distinction  is  qualified 
to  be  admitted  to  the  rights  of  a  Bachelor  of  Arts, 
but  that  "  the  degree  is  in  all  respects  equivalent  to 
the  one  to  which,  in  like  case,  we  admit  our  [Har- 
vard] students."  In  numerous  ways  the  interests 
of  the  two  colleges  are  clearly  recognized  as  iden- 
tical. Examinations,  exactly  alike  for  both  institu- 
tions, are  held  in  the  two  colleges  at  the  same  time. 
The  themes  of  Harvard  men  are  sometimes  read  at 
Radcliffe,  and  on  at  least  one  occasion  the  theme  of 
a  Radcliffe  girl  was  read  to  a  class  of  Harvard  men, 
and  by  them  cheered  to  the  echo.  The  Harvard 
Graduates'  Magamne  gives  large  space  to  Radcliffe 
College  affairs,  and  at  the  present  time,  because  of 
peculiar  circumstances,  one  Harvard  College  scholar- 
ship is  actually  being  used  for  the  education  of  a  girl 
at  Radcliffe. 

The  social  and  academic  life  which  Radcliffe 
shares  with  Harvard  is  but  small,  however,  in  com- 
parison with  the  student  interests  and  diversions 
of  the  girls  by  themselves.  The  Idler  Club,  to  which 
all  Radcliffe  girls  belong,  has  theatricals  every  two 
weeks;  the  Emmanuel  Gub  presents  one  or  two 
original  plays  a  year  on  the  stage  of  Fay  House; 


Radcliffe  College  iii 

there  are  annual  athletic  meets  in  the  fine  new  gym- 
nasium (equipped  with  a  magnificent  swimming- 
pool),  and  each  Thursday  afternoon  there  is  a  tea 
at  Bertram  Hall,  the  college's  one  hall  of  residence. 
Of  hockey,  tennis,  and  basket-ball,  the  college  has 
its  own  good  share.  The  spacious  and  imposing 
new  Students'  House,  the  college's  memorial  to  Mrs. 
Agassiz,  which  is  now  approaching  completion,  will 
provide  a  lunch-room  and  ample  accommodations 
for  clubs,  as  well  as  a  real  theatre.  This  last  acquisi- 
tion will  seem  strange  indeed  to  those  girls  who,  all 
through  their  undergraduate  years,  produced  plays 
on  the  cramped  Auditorium  stage,  where  the  problem 
of  adequate  setting,  as  well  as  of  sufficient  space 
in  which  to  act,  was  an  ever-present  one.  Still  the 
very  limitations  of  the  old  days  resulted  in  aston- 
ishing exhibitions  of  resource.  Once,  when  there 
was  a  woodland  scene  to  be  staged,  and  no  sylvan 
scenery  at  hand,  the  girls  on  the  Idler  committee  of 
the  day  went  themselves  to  a  neighbouring  bit  of 
forest,  chopped  down  some  evergreens,  and  rode 
triumphantly  back  to  Cambridge  in  the  express- 
wagon  which  bore  their  booty.  Even  when  con- 
fronted with  the  necessity  of  providing  the  interior 
of  a  Chinese  palace  upon  an  allowance  of  $2.50,  they 
were  not  nonplussed.  The  "  palace  "  was  a  success, 
which  proves  again  that  primitive  conditions  evoke 


112  The  College  Girl  of  America 

their  own  acts  of  power.  Class  pride,  scarcely  less 
than  necessity,  is  a  mother  of  invention. 

In  recent  years  a  very  interesting  new  depar- 
ture has  been  introduced  into  the  Radcliffe  social 
calendar  in  the  form  of  an  annual  original  operetta. 
The  first  of  these  musical  productions,  *'  The 
Orientals,'*  was  given  in  the  spring  of  1898,  Jose- 
phine Sherwood,  '99,  having  supplied  the  music  and 
the  lyrics,  and  Katherine  Berry,  '98,  the  libretto. 
The  second  operetta,  "  The  Princess  Perfection," 
was  written  entirely  by  Josephine  Sherwood,  '99. 
The  third  operetta,  "  The  Copper  Complication," 
was  written  by  Mabel  Wheeler  Daniels  and  Rebecca 
Lane  Hooper,  1900,  and  this  same  excellent  partner- 
ship was  responsible,  a  year  later,  for  another  opera, 
"  The  Court  of  Hearts."  The  two  last-named  works 
have  since  been  produced  many  times  throughout  the 
United  States,  Miss  Daniels  and  Miss  Hooper  hav- 
ing quite  accidentally  hit,  as  has  since  been  shown, 
upon  an  unworked  field,  —  i.  e.,  operetta  suitable 
for  amateur  production.  It  was  in  the  opera  of 
1902,  however,  —  by  Florence  E.  Heath  and  Grace 
HoUingsworth,  then  undergraduates,  —  that  the 
high-water  mark  of  achievement  in  stage  business 
and  effective  acting  was  reached. 

Yet  that  there  is  far  more  work  than  play  at 
Radcliffe,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  majority 


Radcliffe  College  113 

of  the  graduates  take  their  degrees  "  with  distinc- 
tion." Usually  from  thirty  to  forty  per  cent,  are 
made  bachelors  of  art,  cum  laude,  ten  per  cent. 
magna  cum  laude,  and  one  or  two  per  cent,  summa 
cum  laude.  Though  it  has  not  always  been  so,  more 
than  half  of  the  Radcliffe  graduates  nowadays  en- 
gage in  some  form  of  work.  Almost  fifty  per  cent,  of 
them  are  teachers,  though  a  fair  proportion  are  doing 
very  good  work  along  literary  lines,  and  some  few 
are  engaged  in  secretarial  and  social  occupations. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  Radcliffe  students,  while 
they  have  never  been  subject  to  such  restraining  rules 
for  personal  conduct  as  prevail  at  many  colleges, 
have  always  conducted  themselves  with  quiet,  lady- 
like dignity.  No  word  of  gossip  or  scandal  from 
the  outside  world  has  ever  been  visited  upon  any 
member  of  the  college.  Though  the  girls  live  their 
life  in  a  town  swarming  with  men  students,  they 
have  always  been  able  to  pursue  their  pleasures  and 
their  studies  without  any  kind  of  annoyance  or 
any  undue  restriction. 

There  is  this  year  (1904)  graduating  from  Rad- 
cliffe a  young  woman  who  will  probably  do  more  to 
make  the  college  known  in  history  than  all  the  other 
members  of  the  alumnae  combined.  Miss  Helen 
Keller,  who,  though  blind,  deaf,  and  dumb,  has  suc- 
cessfully pursued  the  courses  leading  to  the  degree 


114  The  College  Girl  of  America 

of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  is,  indeed,  a  graduate  of  whom 
RadcHffe  may  well  be  proud.  In  her  senior  year, 
as  in  one  other  undergraduate  year,  Miss  Keller  was 
elected  vice-president  of  her  class,  a  pretty  tribute, 
though  but  a  just  one,  to  a  girl  who  has  obtained 
her  liberal  education  only  by  overcoming  almost  in- 
surmountable barriers  of  circumstance.  In  this  con- 
nection it  is  interesting  to  read  one  of  Miss  Keller's 
daily  themes,  written  by  her  in  the  fall  of  1900,  and 
reprinted  from  the  RadcHffe  Magazine  of  March, 
1901 : 

"  There  are  disadvantages,  I  find,  in  going  to 
college.  The  one  I  feel  most  is  lack  of  time.  I 
used  to  have  time  to  think,  to  reflect  —  my  mind  and 
I.  We  would  sit  together  of  an  evening  and  listen 
to  the  inner  melody  of  the  spirit  which  one  hears 
only  in  leisure  moments,  when  the  words  of  some 
loved  poet  touch  a  deep,  sweet  chord  in  the  soul  that 
had  been  silent  until  then.  But  in  college  there  is  no 
time  to  commune  with  one's  thoughts.  One  goes 
to  college  to  learn,  not  to  think,  it  seems.  When 
one  enters  the  portals  of  learning,  one  leaves  the 
dearest  pleasures  —  solitude,  books,  and  imagination 
—  outside  with  the  whispering  pines  and  the  sunlit, 
odorous  woods.  I  suppose  I  ought  to  find  some 
comfort  in  the  thought  that  I  am  laying  up  treasures 
for  future  enjoyment;  but  I  am  improvident  enough 


Radcliffe  College  115 

to  prefer  present  joy  to  hoarding  treasures  against 
a  rainy  day.  It  is  impossible,  I  think,  to  read  four  or 
five  different  books  in  different  languages,  and  treat- 
ing of  widely  different  subjects,  in  one  day,  and  not 
lose  sight  of  the  very  ends  for  which  one  reads,  — 
mental  stimulus  and  enrichment.  When  one  reads 
hurriedly  and  promiscuously,  one's  mind  becomes 
encumbered  with  a  lot  of  choice  bric-a-brac  for 
which  there  is  very  little  use.  Just  now  my  mind  is 
so  full  of  heterogeneous  matter  that  I  almost  despair 
of  ever  being  able  to  put  it  in  order.  Whenever  I 
enter  the  region  that  was  the  kingdom  of  my  mind, 
I  feel  like  the  proverbial  bull  in  the  china  closet.  A 
thousand  odds  and  ends  of  knowledge  come  crashing 
about  my  head  like  hailstones,  and  when  I  try  to 
escape  them,  theme  goblins  and  college-nixies  of  all 
sorts  pursue  me  until  I  wish  —  oh,  may  I  be  forgiven 
the  wicked  wish !  —  that  I  might  smash  the  idols 
I  came  to  worship." 

This  theme,  produced  during  Miss  Keller's  fresh- 
man days,  doubtless  very  well  expresses  what 
many  another  freshman  has  felt  during  her  first 
months  of  college  life.  But  in  Helen  Keller's 
case,  and,  indisputably,  in  that  of  hundreds  of  other 
girls  as  well,  four  years  at  Radcliffe  have  provided 
opportunity  second  to  none  to  "put  the  mind  in 
order." 


ii6  The  College  Girl  of  America 

The  one  really  gay  and  beautiful  affair  in  Rad- 
cliffe's  year  is  the  Class  Day  Reception,  which  always 
takes  the  form  of  a  garden-party.  By  the  aid  of 
perhaps  a  thousand  Japanese  lanterns  strung  along 
the  fence,  festooned  across  the  canvas-carpeted  lawn, 
and  suspended  from  the  trees,  the  appearance  of 
pK>sitive  spaciousness  is  given  to  the  rather  meagre 
campus.  The  soft  glow  of  the  lights,  the  individual 
tables  spread  under  the  stars,  the  good  music  by  the 
College  Glee  Club  on  the  balcony  of  the  adjacent 
"  gym,"  or  from  a  bandstand  erected  in  the  yard  for 
the  purpKDse,  ideally  combine  to  make  a  pleasant  even- 
ing. Then  for  the  first  time,  perhaps,  the  Harvard 
youths  hear  that  characteristic  tale  of  the  Only  Man : 

"  Once  on  a  time  a  Harvard  man 
Got  a  card  to  a  Radcliffe  tea ; 
And,  of  course,  he  was,  as  all  men  are, 
As  pleased  as  pleased  could  be. 
He  was  a  man  who  had  always  said 
That  nothing  could  make  him  quail. 
He  said  that  a  summons  from  the  Dean 
Would  not  even  turn  him  pale. 

"  When  the  day  arrived,  he  dressed  himself 
In  a  way  both  fine  and  neat, 
And  with  a  rose  in  his  buttonhole 
He  walked  down  Garden  Street. 
But  when  he  came  in  at  the  door 
He  almost  turned  and  ran, 
For  there  among  four  hundred  girls 
He  was  the  only  man. 


Radcliffe  College  117 

«  He  had  faced  the  Yale  rush  line; 
He'd  been  captain  of  the  nine  j 
He  was  not  afraid  to  dine 
Upon  the  new  Memorial  plan. 
But  oh,  he  had  to  flee 
When,  at  a  Radcliffe  tea, 
He  was  the  only  only  man." 

On  Class  Day  the  graduating  girls  receive  in 
groups  of  twos  and  threes  in  the  various  lecture- 
halls,  which,  by  the  aid  of  cushions,  draperies,  light 
furniture  and  flowers,  have  been  transformed  for 
the  nonce  into  quite  wwacademic-looking  rooms.  On 
this  one  occasion,  too,  men  are  permitted  to  share 
the  dancing  privilege  at  Radcliffe. 

Formal  Commencement  exercises  come  three  or 
four  days  later  in  Sanders  Theatre.  Then  the  presi- 
dents of  Radcliffe  and  Harvard  sit  side  by  side  on  the 
platform;  Radcliffe's  Academic  Board  is  escorted 
to  the  hall  by  Harvard  faculty  members,  and  Rad- 
cliffe's  graduating  class  receives  degrees  which  Har- 
vard's president  has  signed  and  stamped  with 
Harvard's  seal. 


BRYN  MAWR  COLLEGE 

It  has  often  been  said  of  Bryn  Mawr  that  the  place 
itself  is  so  beautiful  that  merely  to  be  there  is  an 
education.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  the  one  woman's 
college  in  the  country  which  is  architecturally  impres- 
sive. With  the  exception  of  the  original  adminis- 
tration building,  —  named  Taylor  Hall,  after  the  col- 
lege's founder,  —  the  various  lecture  and  residence 
halls  are  all  of  Elizabethan  architecture,  and  individ- 
ually, no  less  than  as  parts  of  a  whole,  have  distinct 
nobility  of  form.  The  word  Bryn  Mawr  means 
high  hill,  and  the  college  was  named  after  the  town 
five  miles  west  in  the  suburbs  of  Philadelphia,  on  the 
main  line  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  Its  site 
is  four  hundred  and  twenty  feet  above  sea-level,  in 
the  midst  of  a  beautiful  rolling  country,  made  easily 
accessible  in  every  direction  by  good  roads.  The 
college  grounds  cover  fifty-two  acres,  and  include 
lawns,  tennis-courts,  a  large  athletic-field,  and 
a  skating-pond. 

If  first  seen  on  a  quietly  brooding  spring  day, 

when  the  ground  is  blue  with  violets,  and  the  blue 

ii8 


A    BRYN    MAWR    GIRL. 


Bryn  Mawr  College  119 

and  white  "  fair  weather "  signal  flags  are  flying 
from  Dalton  Hall,  the  beauty  of  Bryn  Mawr  is  a 
thing  never  to  be  forgotten.  Far  off  in  the  dis- 
tance, over  the  undulating  hills,  is  a  stately  white 
marble  residence  with  red  tiled  roof ;  in  the  middle 
distance  is  an  attractive  group  of  professors'  houses ; 
somewhat  nearer  stands  out  "  Low  Buildings," 
where  the  members  of  the  faculty  have  cozy  apart- 
ments and  live  a  very  serene,  happy  life;  directly 
before  one  are  Merion,  Radnor,  Denbigh,  and  Pem- 
broke, the  last-named  an  imposing  structure  of  gray 
stone,  with  a  central  arch  through  which  one  views 
a  very  pleasant  vista  of  shady  green.  The  newest 
residence  hall  is  Rockefeller,  just  completed  this 
spring.  It  adjoins  Pembroke  Hall  West,  and  its 
central  tower,  known  as  the  Owl  Gate,  forms,  for 
foot-passengers,  the  permanent  entrance  to  the 
college. 

Bryn  Mawr  College  was  founded  by  Dr.  Joseph 
W.  Taylor,  of  Burlington,  New  Jersey,  a  man  who, 
though  a  bachelor,  had  all  his  life  taken  a  great  inter- 
est in  the  education  of  women.  He  died  January 
18,  1880,  leaving  the  greater  portion  of  his  estate 
for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  this  in- 
stitution of  advanced  learning.  It  was  his  earnest 
desire  that  the  college  should  be  pervaded  by  the 
principles  of  Christianity  held  by  Friends,  which  he 


120  The  College  Girl  of  America 

believed  to  be  the  same  in  substance  as  those  taught 
by  the  early  Christians,  and  an  endeavour  has  ac- 
cordingly been  made  to  promote  this  end.  In  the 
social  life  of  the  college  to-day  interesting  little 
traces  of  its  Friend  origin  are  discerned;  there  is 
never  any  dancing  at  Bryn  Mawr,  for  instance. 
And  its  chapel  has  about  it  nothing  that  would  dis- 
tinguish the  room  from  an  ordinary  lecture-hall. 

Before  actual  work  was  begun  at  Bryn  Mawr, 
the  organization  of  Vassar,  Smith,  and  Wellesley 
was  carefully  studied.  To  the  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity, however,  is  due  the  academic  system  which 
was  finally  adopted,  a  scheme  of  major  and  minor 
electives  in  fixed  combination,  to  which  Bryn  Mawr 
gave  the  name  of  the  group  system.  In  the  spring 
of  1885  the  first  programme  was  issued,  and  that 
same  autumn  the  college  regularly  opened  for  in- 
struction. From  the  start  Bryn  Mawr  has  main- 
tained distinctly  high  rank.  No  college  women  in 
the  country  are  more  thoroughly  trained  and  have  a 
more  scholarly  type  of  mind  than  those  who  take 
degrees  here.  Having  said  which,  one  may  perhaps 
pass  at  once  to  the  institution's  social  side,  even 
though,  in  so  doing,  one  does  run  the  risk  of  not 
giving  a  large  enough  degree  of  prominence  to  the 
thing  which,  above  all  others,  makes  Bryn  Mawr 
what  it  is,  i.  e.,  its  really  austere  academic  life. 


Bryn  Mawr  College  121 

The  only  kind  of  hazing  ever  indulged  in  at  Bryn 
Mawr  comes  early  in  the  year,  when  the  sophomores 
try  to  spirit  away  the  new  caps  and  gowns  which  the 
proud  freshmen  have  just  purchased.  The  game 
is  for  the  freshmen  to  find  their  precious  robes. 
When,  therefore,  they  are  able  to  come  in  to  chapel 
dressed  in  their  newly-attained  habiliments,  they  are 
warmly  congratulated  by  the  president  "  upon  hav- 
ing successfully  matriculated."  The  girls  never 
renew  their  caps  and  gowns,  a  senior  being  justly 
proud  of  a  well-worn  cap  and  a  rusty  gown.  Even 
at  Commencement  the  same  old  gowns  are  worn 
over  fresh  white  duck  skirts  and  white  shirt-waists. 

A  question  very  commonly  addressed  to  the  Bryn 
Mawr  girl  by  a  stranger  at  the  college  is,  "  Why 
do  you  have  a  lantern  on  your  college  pin  ? " 
Acquaintance  with  the  customs  and  life  of  the  place 
makes  one  concede,  however,  that  the  lantern  is  a 
singularly  appropriate  emblem  to  be  so  used.  For 
almost  the  first  association  an  entering  student  has 
is  with  lanterns.  And  the  lantern  is  likewise  linked 
with  her  final  impressions  of  her  Alma  Mater. 

One  of  the  oldest  and  most  characteristic  customs 
is  the  Presentation  of  the  Lanterns.^  The  ex-fresh- 
men then  greet  the  incoming  girls  with  a  song,  and 
present  each  one  with  a  "  lantern  to  light  her  steps 

«  Susan  G.  Walker  in  the  Century  Magazine, 


122  The  College  Girl  of  America 

through  the  unknown  ways  of  college  life,"  and 
especially  through  the  mazes  of  the  group  system. 
Sometimes  much  sage  advice  is  given  with  the  light, 
and  once  the  unfortunate  freshmen  won  their  lan- 
terns only  after  passing  an  impromptu  oral  exami- 
nation. The  form  of  the  affair  differs  with  the 
character  and  resources  of  the  class  giving  it ;  but  as 
preparations  for  it  are  begim  in  the  freshmen  year, 
the  offering  is  usually  both  clever  and  original. 

The  farewell  lantern  celebration  is  at  the  alumnae 
supper  given  on  Commencement  evening.  Here  a 
speech  of  welcome  is  made  to  the  new  alumnae,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  festivities  the  lights  are  turned 
low,  and  the  lanterns,  standing  at  each  place,  are 
lighted  from  one  large  lantern  that  has  been  burn- 
ing throughout  the  evening  at  the  head  of  the 
table.  Holding  the  lighted  lanterns,  the  alumnae 
sing  the  old  college  song.  Then  they  slowly  go  out, 
leaving  their  bright  lights  still  burning  on  the 
deserted  board. 

A  very  pretty  old  English  custom  has  recently 
been  revived  at  Bryn  Mawr.  Early  on  the  morning 
of  May-day  the  students  search  the  woods  and  fields 
near  the  college  for  wild  flowers,  with  which  they 
fill  dainty  baskets  that  they  deposit,  a  little  later, 
at  the  doors  of  favoured  friends.  At  one  particular 
May-time,  a  few  years  ago,  Bryn  Mawr  conducted 


Bryn  Mawr  College  123 

festivities  appropriate  to  the  season  upon  a  huge, 
though  highly  artistic,  scale.  There  were  then  no 
less  than  four  May-poles,  as  well  as  a  number  of 
plays  to  raise  money  for  the  students'  building. 
And,  following  the  old  English  May  custom,  every- 
body—  except  guests  —  was  in  costume,  beggars, 
peddlers,  fortune-tellers,  and  merry  Maid  Marians, 
chaffering  gaily  on  the  mossy  greensward  with  all 
whom  they  encountered.  The  gowns  were  carefully 
thought  out  and  were  historically  correct,  a  feeling 
for  history  so  tempering  the  desire  for  fun  that  noth- 
ing anachronistic  was  permitted  in  the  day's  exer- 
cises. As  a  natural  consequence  this  May-day  is 
still  remembered  with  pride  by  the  friends  of  the 
college. 

Short  as  has  been  the  life  of  Bryn  Mawr,  there  is 
already  connected  with  it  a  wealth  of  interest  and 
tradition.  Each  class  has  a  seal,  a  dolphin,  a  beaver, 
or  some  other  animal,  which  every  member  wears 
in  ring  form,  and  in  the  use  of  the  lanterns  not  a 
little  originality  and  ingenuity  have  been  displayed. 
The  first  lantern,  pointed  out  to  the  visitor  of  to-day 
with  impressive  reverence  by  the  undergraduate, 
was  a  plain  little  candlestick.  From  then  up  to  the 
present  time,  every  sort  of  lantern  has  been  used. 
All  the  residence  halls  —  except  the  newest  one  — 
bear  the  names  of  Welsh  counties,  a  thing  which 


124  The  College  Girl  of  America 

of  itself  gives  charm  and  atmosphere  to  Bryn  Mawr. 
The  views  from  these  halls  are  in  every  case  fine  and 
inspiring.  The  students'  rooms  in  the  halls  are 
many  of  them  arranged  in  double  suites,  two  bed- 
rooms and  a  common  study.  In  Pembroke  the 
suites  are  particularly  attractive,  as  are  also  the  par- 
lour and  the  reception-room.  The  dining-room  at 
Pembroke  is  over  the  imposing  central  arch,  and, 
finished  as  it  is  with  dark  wood  and  equipped  with 
handsome  high-backed  chairs  and  dainty  table  fit- 
tings, it  forcefully  impresses  one  as  quite  all  that  such 
a  room  in  a  girls'  college  should  be.  At  the  end  of 
the  room  are  two  fireplaces,  one  on  each  side.  Over 
these  are  carved  respectively  the  legends  Ung  ie 
Seruiray  and  Veritatem  Dilexi.  The  table  at  Bryn 
Mawr  is  uniformly  good,  dinner  being,  of  course, 
the  meal  of  the  day.  This  is  a  social  occasion,  and  all 
the  girls  dress  for  it  as  carefully  as  if  they  were  in 
their  own  homes.  The  college  gown,  which  is  the 
regular  academic  garb,  is  never  worn  then. 

This  year,  for  the  first  time,  the  tuition  fee  is  $200 
for  undergraduate  students.  Other  expenses  bring 
the  price  of  a  year  at  Bryn  Mawr  up  to  not  less  than 
$500  for  undergraduates  and  $400  for  graduate 
students.  Here,  however,  as  in  many  other  of  the 
leading  educational  institutions  for  women,  there 
are  ways  of  helping  girls  to  help  themselves.    Some 


Bryn  Mawr  College  125 

of  these  ways  are  exceedingly  interesting.  A  lunch 
room  in  the  gymnasium  is  conducted  by  students; 
there  are  electrical  lieutenants  in  every  building, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  regulate  the  matter  of  lights; 
a  college  book-shop  has  students  for  clerks,  and  a 
captain  of  the  fire-brigade  directs  drills  for  each 
residence  hall.  When  old  Denbigh  was  burned  a 
few  years  ago,  the  girls  had  been  so  carefully 
trained  in  fire  fighting  that  they  manned  the  hose 
very  effectively.  This  came  as  a  result  of  con- 
stant drill,  for  at  Bryn  Mawr  whenever  the  fire- 
bell  rings,  the  girls  must  run  to  the  room  in 
danger,  wearing  on  their  faces  towels  which  have 
been  dipped  into  a  basin  of  water.  They  then  pass 
buckets  and  see  to  the  hose  in  a  thoroughly  profes- 
sional fashion. 

As  would  be  expected  of  a  sane,  broad  college 
like  Bryn  Mawr,  hampering  boarding-school  regula- 
tions are  absent.  The  train  service  between  the 
town  and  Philadelphia  is  excellent,  and  whenever  an 
opera  or  a  good  play  is  to  be  seen,  the  girls  are  en- 
couraged to  go  in  town  for  that  purpose.  If  they  are 
away  for  overnight,  they  register  their  address ;  and, 
naturally,  they  do  not  go  in  town  in  the  evening 
without  a  chaperon.  But  for  the  most,  the  girls  are 
self-governing,  and  do  the  right  and  the  proper 
thing  because  they  wish  to.  Chapel,  held  every  day  at 


126  The  College  Girl  of  America 

a  quarter  before  nine,  is  voluntary,  but  the  students 
go  in  large  numbers.  On  Sundays  the  girls  attend 
such  churches  in  the  neighbourhood  as  they  may 
elect,  and  every  other  Wednesday  evening  there  is 
a  sermon  at  college  by  some  distinguished  clergy- 
man, the  alternate  Wednesdays  being  given  over 
to  a  Christian  Union  service,  conducted  by  the 
students  themselves. 

Gymnasium  attendance  is  required  at  Bryn  Mawr, 
as  are  also  four  periods  of  exercise  each  week.  One 
hour  only  of  this  is  class  drill,  however,  the  rest  of 
the  time  being  divided  between  golf,  riding,  swim- 
ming, hockey,  or  basket-ball,  all  of  which  count  as 
exercise.  Interest  in  this  last-named  sport  is  very 
keen.  A  silver  lantern  was  proudly  pointed  out  to 
me  as  the  trophy  for  which  the  basket-ball  teams  are 
now  eagerly  contending.  I  saw,  too,  a  very  pretty 
basket-ball  game  that  same  afternoon,  —  1905,  the 
devotees  of  the  red,  contesting  with  1907,  gay  in 
green  ribbons,  for  the  honours.  And  a  very  charm- 
ing picture  the  girls  made  in  their  corduroy  sailor 
suits  with  white  collars  and  white  belts,  as  they 
scrambled  for  the  elusive  ball!  Their  coach  was 
a  tall,  and  very  pretty,  girl,  whose  red  coat  stood 
out  brilliantly  against  the  vivid  green  of  the  spring 
verdure.  Grouped  around  on  the  edge  of  the  field 
were  dozens  of  enthusiastic  maidens  gowned  all  in 


Bryn  Mawr  College  127 

white  duck,  lustily  cheering  when  the  1907's  made 
a  goal,  and  becoming  very  excited  when  the  other 
side  scored.  It  had  never  occurred  to  me  before  that 
basket-ball  was  a  picturesque  game. 

Undergraduate  work  at  Bryn  Mawr  is  all  over 
by  four  in  the  afternoon,  so  that  there  is  a  very  fair 
margin  of  leisure  for  the  girls  to  enjoy.  This  they 
do  in  fine  weather  by  means  of  teas  on  the  lawn, 
the  wardens  of  the  various  halls  being  "  at  home  " 
on  different  days  to  the  student  body.  Singing  on 
the  steps  of  Taylor  Hall  (which  belong  to  the 
seniors)  is  another  favourite  diversion,  a  thing  not 
only  delightful  in  itself,  but  useful,  too,  as  practice 
for  the  garden-party  occasion,  which  crowns  the 
senior  year,  and  for  the  farewell  to  the  halls  and 
the  faculty  which  comes  after  the  seniors'  last  lecture. 

Into  the  last  week  of  the  college  year  are  crowded 
many  gaieties.  The  first  of  these  is  the  senior  class 
supper,  a  distinctly  impressive  occasion  when  every- 
thing that  has  marked  the  career  of  the  outgoing 
class  is  brought  up  and  enjoyed,  old  jokes  repeated, 
old  stories  retold,  and  every  endeavour  made  to 
mitigate  the  sadness  which  must  otherwise  attend 
a  farewell.  At  the  end,  the  class,  standing,  sings 
its  own  song  and  gives  its  cheer.  When  the  feast 
is  all  over,  some  of  the  fragments  that  remain  are 
sent  to  the  honorary  members  of  the  class,  —  those 


128  The  College  Girl  of  America 

of  the  faculty  who  first  came  to  Bryn  Mawr  the 
year  that  class  entered  college.  At  high  noon,  on 
the  day  before  Commencement,  a  breakfast  is  given 
to  the  seniors  by  the  other  students.  This  is  held 
in  the  gymnasium,  decorated  with  daisies  and  boughs 
set  off  by  the  yellow  and  white  of  the  class  banners. 
The  toasts  are  followed  by  chorus  singing  of  college 
songs.  Then,  before  college  breaks  up,  the  seniors 
hand  over  to  the  lower  classes  their  duties  and 
responsibilities,  and  make  a  tour  of  the  buildings, 
which  they  serenade  in  turn.  And  on  Commence- 
ment morning,  as  a  last  loving  attention,  the  fresh- 
men make  for  their  departing  big  sisters  countless 
daisy  chains,  which  are  used  to  decorate  the  chapel 
and  the  hallways. 

For  the  Garden  Party  of  Commencement  Week, 
the  most  ornate  festivity  of  the  college  year,  the 
girls  all  have  beautiful  new  gowns.  Their  friends 
from  outside  are  invited  out  in  large  numbers,  the 
buildings  are  illuminated,  the  trees  hung  with 
Japanese  lanterns,  and  Bryn  Mawr  is  for  the  nonce 
transformed  into  the  gayest  of  fairy-lands.  The 
evening  always  ends  by  singing  on  Taylor  House 
steps,  and  the  song  which  forms  the  last  number  on 
the  programme  is  that  called  "  Our  Gracious  Inspira- 
tion," written  by  Caroline  Foulke,  of  the  class  of 

•96: 


Bryn  Mawr  College  129 

"  Our  gracious  inspiration, 
Our  guiding  star, 
Mistress  and  mother. 
All  hail,  Bryn  Mawr ! 

"  Goddess  of  wisdom, 
Thy  torch  divine 
Doth  beacon  thy  votaries 
To  thy  shrine. 

**  And  we,  thy  daughters, 
Would  thy  vestals  be, 
Thy  torch  to  consecrate 
Eternally." 


BARNARD  COLLEGE 

Commanding  a  glorious  view  of  the  Hudson, 
just  across  the  street  from  the  beautiful  campus  of 
Columbia  College,  and  only  a  stone's  throw  from 
the  stately  white  marble  sarcophagus  where  the 
greatest  general  of  our  Civil  War  lies  entombed, 
Barnard  College  may  be  held  to  have  a  truly  splendid 
site,  even  if  it  does  lie  within  the  bounds  of  New 
York  City.  Not  a  few  other  advantages  belong 
uniquely  to  this  college.  For,  though  it  is  in  pos- 
session of  a  charter  and  of  an  administrative  auton- 
omy of  its  own,  from  the  beginning  Barnard  has 
had  the  advantage  of  a  singularly  close  academic 
connection  with  Columbia.  Its  experience  in  rela- 
tion to  the  university  has  differed  so  widely  from 
that  of  any  other  affiliated  college,  that  to  understand 
it  one  needs  to  trace  somewhat  at  length  the  his- 
tory of  the  institution's  rise. 

Fourteen  years  after  the  opening  of  Vassar,  and 
six  years  after  Girton  began  its  life,  the  late  Presi- 
dent Barnard  of  Columbia  set  forth  in  his  annual 
report  (1879)  some  reasons  in  favour  of  admitting 

130 


Barnard  College  131 

young  women  to  the  institution  of  which  he  was 
head.  In  his  next  report  he  remarked  sadly  that 
these  reasons  had  ''  failed  to  attract  the  serious  at- 
tention of  the  trustees."  None  the  less,  each  year 
he  followed  up  his  first  attack  with  fresh  arguments, 
and,  as  women's  education  in  other  communities 
advanced  by  strides,  he  proceeded  to  challenge 
objectors  to  show  cause  why  Columbia  should  not 
make  her  resources  available  to  all  the  youth  in  her 
environment. 

What  President  Barnard  wanted  was  uncompro- 
mising coeducation.  He  objected  to  isolated  colleges 
for  women  because  "  they  cannot,  or  at  least  in  gen- 
eral will  not,  give  instruction  of  equal  value,  though 
it  may  be  the  same  in  name,  with  that  furnished  to 
young  men  in  the  long-established  and  well-endowed 
colleges  of  highest  repute  in  the  country."  And  the 
affiliated  college,  of  which  Girton  was  at  that  time 
the  best-known  example,  seemed  to  him  "  a  cum- 
brous method  of  conveying  by  conduit  a  stream 
whose  fountainhead  should  be  free  to  all."  Every 
year  until  1883  he  continued  to  represent  to  the 
trustees  and  to  the  public  that  Columbia  was  des- 
tined to  become  a  university,  and  that  a  university 
merits  its  name,  not  merely  by  providing  training 
for  all  human  faculties,  but  by  putting  its  resources 
as  well  at  the  disposal  of  all  qualified  persons. 


132  The  College  Girl  of  America 

Yet  not  improbably  even  these  strenuous  efforts 
in  behalf  of  women's  education  would  have  failed 
to  bear  fruit,  had  not  several  hundred  citizens  of 
New  York  and  vicinity  supported  President  Barnard 
by  handing  to  the  Columbia  trustees  —  in  1883  —  a 
memorial  asking  that  women  be  admitted  to  Colum- 
bia College  on  the  same  terms  as  men.  The  result  of 
this  action  was  that,  though  the  education  side  of 
the  petition  was  refused,  the  board  did  so  far  unbend 
as  to  promise  "  suitable  academic  honours  and  dis- 
tinctions to  any  women  who  should  prove  that  they 
were  entitled  to  the  same."  Doubtless  this  result 
was  highly  unsatisfactory  to  those  presenting  the 
memorial ;  nor  can  it  have  been  encouraging  to  the 
president.  His  ardent  wish  was  to  give  young 
women  an  education ;  "  suitable  academic  honours  '* 
was  quite  another  thing.  What  the  trustees  had  said 
was  in  effect:  We  are  not  prepared  to  educate 
girls;  if,  however,  they  can  contrive  to  educate 
themselves,  we  will  certify  to  the  fact. 

The  president's  next  report  contained  no  allusion 
to  the  question,  and  that  for  1884  dealt  with  it 
only  in  a  brief  paragraph,  stating  that  six  women 
had  availed  themselves  of  the  privilege  offered  in  the 
"  Collegiate  Course  for  Women."  The  system  thus 
inaugurated  pleased  no  one,  for  the  women  found 
it  extremely  difficult  to  obtain,  outside  the  college, 


Barnard  College  133 

such  training  as  would  enable  them  to  pass  the 
college  examinations;  and  the  college  authorities 
became  reluctant  to  confer,  on  the  strength  of  ex- 
aminations only,  degrees  which  commonly  implied 
daily  class-room  training  as  well.  So  after  these 
half  a  dozen  women  had  succeeded  in  getting  de- 
grees, the  system  was  superseded.  It  then  became 
plain  to  all  interested  that,  unless  they  would  drop 
below  their  ideals,  it  was  necessary  to  provide  for 
women  an  education  identical  with,  or  equivalent  to, 
that  provided  by  Columbia  for  men.  With  this  pur- 
pose in  view,  Barnard  College  was  organized  in 
1889. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  Barnard's  relation  to  Co- 
lumbia has  developed  in  opposite  order  to  that  cus- 
tomary in  such  cases.  Girton  and  the  other  English 
colleges  for  women  began  by  securing  the  benefit 
of  instruction  by  members  of  the  universities  with 
which  they  were  affiliated.  The  Harvard  Annex  in 
this  country  pursued  the  same  policy.  But  while  all 
these  colleges  are  apparently  as  far  as  ever  from 
obtaining  the  degrees  of  their  universities,  Barnard 
girls  get  Columbia  recognition  and  reward.  Co- 
lumbia had  at  the  start  gotten  at  the  root  of  the 
whole  matter  by  conceding  the  degrees  to  women 
who  could  earn  them.  And  having  once  done  this 
it  naturally  felt  obliged  to  see  to  it  that  the  value 


134  The  College  Girl  of  America 

of  its  degrees  should  not  be  impaired.  This  feeHng 
has  been  constantly  operative  in  the  college,  to  the 
end  that  women  at  Barnard  are  now  receiving  the 
liberal  education  for  which  the  broad-minded  Co- 
lumbia president,  whose  name  the  women's  college 
bears,  had  long  striven  with  so  much  persistence, 
chivalry,  and  logic. 

The  first  chairman  of  Barnard's  trustees,  and  the 
man  who,  from  the  beginning  until  his  death  in 
1895,  was  the  chief  spokesman  for  the  college  to 
the  community,  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  Arthur  Brooks, 
whose  talents  and  weight  with  people  of  many 
different  ways  of  thinking  gave  at  once  a  certain 
prestige  to  this  work.  He  used  to  say  at  public  meet- 
ings in  Barnard's  interest  that  in  New  York  a 
woman  could  obtain  the  satisfaction  of  every  want, 
wish,  or  whim,  save  one  —  she  could  not  get  an 
education  if  she  wanted  it.  This  was  so  true  and 
so  effective  that  funds  for  his  project  were  soon 
forthcoming. 

To  meet  the  first  expenses  of  the  college,  a  number 
of  persons  pledged  themselves  to  the  payment  of 
small  annual  sums  for  four  years,  and  with  this  very 
modest  guarantee  a  house  was  rented,  in  1889,  at 
343  Madison  Avenue,  seven  instructors  were  selected 
from  the  Columbia  faculty,  and  fourteen  regular 
and  twelve  special  students  enrolled.     The  second 


Barnard  College  135 

year  nine  additional  instructors  were  appointed,  and 
the  classes  began  to  increase  in  numbers.  At  the 
end  of  the  four  years  of  experiment,  the  college 
found  itself  free  from  debt,  with  a  graduating  class 
of  eight,  with  seven  juniors,  ten  sophomores,  twenty- 
seven  freshmen,  and  thirty-three  special  students. 

By  this  time,  however,  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  had  been  received  from  Mrs.  Van  Wyck 
Brinckerhoff  for  a  building  fund,  and  the  present  site 
purchased.  Before  the  autumn  of  1897,  two  build- 
ings were  completed,  namely,  Milbank  Hall,  the  gift 
of  Mrs.  A.  A.  Anderson,  and  Brinckerhoff  Hall, 
paid  for  chiefly  with  the  fund  already  mentioned. 
In  the  following  year  Fiske  Hall  was  added  by  the 
generosity  of  Mrs.  Josiah  M.  Fiske.  In  October, 
1898,  the  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  was 
given  to  the  college  by  an  anonymous  friend,  and 
invested  as  an  endowment  fund.  From  time  to  time, 
too,  scholarships  have  been  founded,  so  that  now 
some  forty  thousand  dollars  are  available  for  this 
purpose. 

Numerically,  Barnard's  growth  has  quite  kept  pace 
with  its  financial  prosperity;  it  has  now  five  hun- 
dred students  on  its  lists.  Thus  the  Barnard  contin- 
gent forms  a  very  considerable  fraction  of  the  total 
number  of  undergraduates  under  the  care  of  the 
Columbia  instructors,  —  so  large  a  number,  indeed, 


136  The  College  Girl  of  America 

that  beginning  with  the  fall  of  1904  all  the  instruc- 
tion for  women  leading  to  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Arts  is  to  be  given  separately  in  Barnard  College. 
Women  who  have  taken  their  first  degree  will,  how- 
ever, be  accepted  by  Columbia  on  the  same  terms  as 
men,  as  candidates  for  the  degrees  of  Master  of  Arts, 
and  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  and  the  library  of  the 
university  will  continue  to  be  open  to  all  women 
students  upon  the  same  terms  as  men. 

For  the  rather  complicated  scheme  of  instruction 
which  has  worked  so  well  at  Barnard,  Mrs.  George 
Haven  Putnam  is  very  largely  responsible.  Mrs. 
Putnam,  when  Emily  Jane  Smith,  was  first  dean  of 
Barnard,  and  the  system  was  planned  out  by  her  and 
by  President  Seth  Low,  Columbia's  head  at  the  time. 
The  close  and  amicable  relationship  thus  established 
between  the  President  of  Columbia  and  the  Dean 
of  Barnard  still  obtains.  The  present  incumbent  of 
this  important  place  at  the  women's  college  is  Laura 
Drake  Gill,  A.  M.,  whose  academic  training  was 
received  at  Smith  College  and  at  foreign  universities, 
and  who  has  had  since  her  student  days  a  large  and 
varied  experience  in  executive  work.  Possessed  of 
charming  manners  as  well  as  of  deep  culture,  Miss 
Gill  is  exceptionally  well  fitted  to  perform  the  deli- 
cate and  difficult  duties  of  dean  in  an  "  affiliated  " 
institution. 


Barnard  College  137 

The  social  life  of  the  two  colleges  as  such  is  dis- 
tinctly separate.  There  are  the  men's  clubs,  and 
the  women's  clubs,  each  with  their  own  officers 
and  their  own  meetings.  Barnard,  like  Columbia, 
has  class  organizations,  literary  bodies,  fraterni- 
ties, and  Greek  letter  societies.  It  gives,  too,  its 
plays,  —  to  which  no  men  are  admitted,  —  and 
it  has  its  own  delightful  college  functions.  Often, 
however,  there  are  undergraduate  teas  with  music 
and  dancing  until  seven,  to  which  the  girls  of 
the  college  invite  the  men  as  individuals,  and  every 
year  the  Barnard  Junior  Ball  is  given  in  Columbia's 
gymnasium,  —  with  twenty-four  numbers  on  the 
programme,  fine  music,  an  elaborate  supper,  and 
a  wealth  of  blue  and  white  decorations.  For  the 
most,  however,  the  social  life  of  the  two  colleges 
is  admirably  individual. 

Just  at  the  present  time,  as  Fiske  Hall  has  been 
outgrown,  the  girls  who  do  not  live  with  their  par- 
ents in  or  about  New  York  are  made  comfortable  in 
the  dormitory  of  the  Teachers'  College,  just  across 
the  street.  The  board  here  costs  from  seven  dollars 
to  twelve  dollars  a  week,  which,  added  to  text  book, 
matriculation,  and  tuition  fees,  makes  the  total  neces- 
sary expenses  for  a  student  at  Barnard  average  about 
fifteen  dollars  each  week  of  the  academic  year. 
Chapel  service,  held  in  the  college  assembly-room  on 


138  The  College  Girl  of  America 

Tuesday  and  Friday  of  each  week  at  half-past  twelve, 
and  conducted  by  Dean  Gill,  or  by  some  clergyman 
of  the  city,  is  a  beautiful  academic  function.  It 
lasts  twenty  minutes  and  attendance  is  entirely  vol- 
untary. Always,  however,  there  are  hundreds  of 
worshippers  present. 

Inasmuch  as  the  large  majority  of  the  Barnard 
girls  are  day-students,  the  college  must  make  pro- 
vision for  studies  and  reading-rooms.  One  such 
study  in  Fiske  Hall  is  charmingly  furnished  in 
green,  and  has  been  equipped  by  the  alumnae  as 
memorial  to  Miss  Ella  Weed,  for  many  years  the 
very  able  chairman  of  the  college's  academic  com- 
mittee. In  the  basement  of  this  same  building  is  a 
well  set  up  lunch  room  where  excellently  cooked  and 
nicely  served  food  is  provided  at  a  nominal  cost. 

The  little  plays,  the  teas,  the  fudge  parties,  and 
the  chafing-dish  affairs,  which  make  up  the  charm 
of  college-girl  life,  are  as  prominent  at  Barnard  as 
in  other  educational  centres.  Every  class  entertains 
the  freshmen  within  a  month  or  two  of  their  entrance 
at  college,  and  about  Christmas  time  the  incoming 
class  returns  the  compliment.  Once  shadow  pictures 
furnished  the  amusement  on  such  an  occasion,  and 
at  another  time  there  was  a  cotillion.  Of  under- 
graduate plays,  too,  Barnard  has  its  share.  "  The 
School  for  Scandal "  is  frequently  presented,  and. 


Barnard  College  139 

last  year,  on  a  special  occasion,  "  The  Manoeuvres 
of  Jane"  was  given  an  almost  professional  pres- 
entation in  the  theatre  of  the  college  building. 
Though  tennis  and  basket-ball  have  been  enjoyed  to 
some  extent,  the  college  has  hitherto  had  no  gymna- 
sium work.  Now  a  new  building  is  being  erected, 
by  means  of  which  the  "  sound  body  "  will  be  kept 
carefully  in  mind. 

The  flavour  of  life  at  Barnard  can  perhaps  be 
best  conveyed  by  some  excerpts  from  The  Mortar- 
hoard,  the  college  annual.  Here  an  undergraduate 
thus  describes  herself : 

"  I  am  the  very  model  of  a  perfect  undergraduate, 

I  never  overcut,  at  recitations  I  am  never  late ; 

I  always  know  my  lessons  and  delight  to  answer  readily 

The  deep  and  puzzling  questions  which  the   others  fail  at 

steadily. 
I  am  present  at  all  meetings  where  a  quorum  is  or's  meant 

to  be, 
And  remember  to  address  the  chair  in  language  parliamentary. 
I  read  through  every  reference  book  that's  given  out  in  my 

course, 
And   write   neat    commentaries   on   whatever  facts    I    come 

across ; 
The  questions  that  I  ask  are  all  indicative  of  intellect, 
I  never  leave  the  subject,  or  indulge  in  lengthy  retrospect. 
I  write  a  hand  that's  legible,  I  show  a  lot  of  common  sense, 
And  on  committees  do  the  work  successfully  at  small  expense. 
I  show  my  college  spirit  by  subscribing  for  the  Bulletin. 
The  Morningside  and  Lit  are  also  things  I  put  my  money  in. 


140  The  College  Girl  of  America 

I  always  pay  my  dues  and  do  it  solely  of  my  own  accord, 
I  laugh  at  all  the  jokes  in  that  absurdity,  the  Mortarboard^ 
In  view  of  which  I'm  sure  you  will  not  think  it  overbold  to 

state 
That  I  'm  the  very  model  of  a  perfect  undergraduate." 

Further  on  in  this  same  interesting  class  produc- 
tion, the  Barnard  girls  thus  cleverly  feel  their  tem- 
peramental pulse :  "  However  much  our  impression 
on  undergraduate  life  may  be  worn  smooth,  it  will  be 
impossible  to  obliterate  the  marks  of  the  college 
influence  upon  ourselves,  even  when  formulae  have 
become  medley,  and  hypotheses  have  run  aground 
upon  fact.  A  four  years'  reaction  of  individual  upon 
individual  does  not  harden  the  college  woman,  as 
some  antagonists  to  the  *  higher  education  '  are  wont 
to  assert.  On  the  contrary,  we  have  found  that  it 
tends  to  wear  away  prejudices  and  peculiarities,  and 
to  stimulate  a  healthy,  sympathetic,  human  charity 
toward  men  and  women.  We  have  proved  the 
proposition  which  our  class  genius  considers-  an 
axiom :  *  The  longer  you  know  most  people,  the 
better  you  like  them.*  " 

That  the  Barnard  girls  are  able  to  appreciate  their 
individual  as  well  as  their  sex  peculiarities,  is  shown 
by  some  of  the  "  grinds  "  in  the  class  biography  at 
the  end  of  a  Mortarboard.    One  of  these  reads : 


Barnard  College  141 

«  Alas,  Gulielma !  we  would  fain 
Thy  pleasant  friendship  claim  ; 
But  no,  it  is  impossible  — 
We  cannot  speak  thy  name !  " 

A  peppery  maiden  is  thus  gently  ridiculed : 


"  We  love  littie  Helen,  her  heart  is  so  warm, 
And  if  you  don't  cross  her  she'll  do  you  no  harm; 
So  don't  contradict  her,  or  else,  if  you  do, 
Get  under  the  table  and  wait  till  she's  through." 

Every  college  girl  who  has  ever  speculated  as  to 
the  authorship  of  a  particularly  clever  daily  theme, 
and  has  then  had  her  curiosity  gratified  by  an  omnis- 
cient maiden  who  sits  down  front,  will  appreciate 
this  "  grind  "  : 

M « Who  wrote  the  theme ?  * 

*  I  know,'  said  Adele, 
« I  know  very  well 

Who  wrote  the  theme.* 

*  How  do  you  know  ?  * 

*  I  sit  near  and  spy 
With  my  little  eye, 
That's  how  I  know.' " 

But  to  the  Barnard  girl,  as  to  her  sisters  in  other 
colleges,  comes  finally  an  end  to  the  years  of  study 
and  friendly  fooling.  On  the  last  Friday  of  the 
spring  term,  the  Class  Day  exercises  for  the  girls 


142  The  College  Girl  of  America 

are  held  in  the  theatre ;  a  salutatory  is  given  by  the 
president  of  the  class,  the  roll  called  by  the  secre- 
tary, the  class  statistics  presented,  the  class  prophecy 
made,  the  class  oration  pronounced,  the  song  "  To 
Barnard  "  sung,  and  the  valedictory  offered.  The 
following  Sunday,  Barnard  girls  share  v^ith  the 
other  members  of  Columbia  University  the  Bacca- 
laureate sermon  in  the  university  gymnasium,  wear- 
ing their  caps  and  gowns,  and  looking  every  inch 
the  grave  and  reverend  seniors  that  they  are.  On 
Wednesday  the  Commencement  exercises  for  the 
whole  university  are  held  in  Columbia  gymnasium, 
and  degrees  are  given  to  the  graduates  of  all  depart- 
ments of  the  university.  This  function  comes  in 
the  morning,  and  the  seniors  march  to  it  in  stately 
procession.  It  is  followed  by  a  lunch  at  Barnard 
for  the  new  graduates  of  that  college,  and  the  same 
afternoon  the  Association  of  Barnard  College 
Alumnae  gives  a  reception  to  the  incoming  class. 

When  all  this  is  over,  the  girls  who  were  yes- 
terday undergraduates  are  full-fledged  alumnae,  with 
the  duty  and  privilege  of  working  for  their  col- 
lege. Often  they  do  this  in  highly  original  fashion. 
The  class  of  1903,  for  instance,  gave  this  spring 
at  Sherry's,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Barnard  Reading- 
room,  a  very  interesting  entertainment  called 
Advance  Sheets.    The  Contents  of  the  Sheets  were 


Barnard  College  143 

introduced  by  Walter  S.  Page,  editor  of  the  World's 
Work,  after  which  Agnes  ReppUer,  Richard  Le 
Gallienne,  Carolyn  Wells,  Myra  Kelly,  Seumas 
McManus,  Elene  Foster,  and  others,  read  from  con- 
tributions of  theirs  about  to  be  published  in  various 
well-known  magazines.  It  is  a  pity  that  no  Mortar- 
board comment  on  the  afternoon  is  obtainable.  I 
am  so  sure  it  would  be  crisp  and  interesting. 


THE  WOMAN'S  COLLEGE  OF  BALTIMORE 

In  these  days,  when  so  many  people  are  sore.'y 
puzzled  in  regard  to  the  best  method  of  educating- 
girls,  it  is  a  relief  to  encounter  a  man  who  believes 
with  all  his  strength  in  the  form  of  education  which 
he  is  himself  directing.  Such  a  man  is  Dr.  John 
F.  Goucher,  president  of  the  Woman's  College  at 
Baltimore. 

Doctor  Goucher  holds  that  the  physical  and  psy- 
chical differences  between  young  men  and  young 
women  are  so  great,  that  their  college  courses  must 
be  not  only  separate,  but  diverse.  Woman's  special 
work,  he  believes,  is  still  centred  in  the  home  and 
circles  outward,  while  man's  special  work  is  in  the 
world  and  circles  inward.  Man's  success,  he  argues, 
comes  through  concentration,  continuity  of  work, 
and  cumulative  results.  His  strength  is  in  per- 
sistence. He  must  be  a  specialist,  limiting  his  field 
if  he  would  intensify  his  power.  Woman,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  to  do  work  which  is  much  more 
difficult,  and  reaches  considerably  further.  The 
resulting  demands  upon  her  are  varied,  involved, 

144 


The  Woman^s  College  of  Baltimore       145 

and  numberless.  Her  success  will  depend,  there- 
fore, upon  her  versatility.  She  needs  alertness  and 
poise,  judgment  and  skill,  taste  and  tact,  a  nature 
enriched  with  varied  and  exact  knowledge,  beauti- 
fied by  culture,  chaste  and  strong  through  discipline, 
lofty  in  ideals,  and  possessing  the  incomparable 
grace  of  unselfish  ministry.  Thus,  and  thus  only, 
as  wife  and  mother,  embodiment  and  inspiration 
of  the  best  in  society,  an  ever-new  revelation  of 
the  meaning,  beauty,  and  power  of  the  gospel  of 
love  and  ministry,  is  she  qualified  to  meet  the  varied 
demands  of  family  life. 

To  put  the  thing  colloquially.  Doctor  Goucher 
would  educate  "  girls  as  girls."  The  ordinary  girls' 
college  turns  out,  he  will  tell  you,  an  occasional 
scholar,  some  pedants,  many  teachers,  and  a  few  — 
a  very  few  —  all  around  girls.  It  is  toward  the 
multiplication  of  the  "  all  around  girl  "  that  the 
president  of  Baltimore  is  bending  his  energies. 
Every  effort  is  made  at  this  college  to  develop 
appreciation,  ripe  culture,  and  womanliness.  To 
this  end  even  the  minutest  appointments  of  the 
college  buildings  have  been  directed. 

Of  campus,  this  institution  has  almost  none.  Yet 
the  college  has  not  been  swallowed  up  in  the  city 
like  its  neighbour,  Johns  Hopkins,  for  green  lawns 
separate  the  red-roofed  halls  from  the  street  and 


146  The  College  Girl  of  America 

from  each  other,  and  on  all  sides  there  is  such 
openness  to  light  and  air  as  is  usually  to  be  found 
only  in  the  country.  The  site  was  chosen,  the 
buildings  planned,  and  the  spot  which  each  should 
occupy  selected  while  this  entire  district  of  Balti- 
more was  little  more  than  an  open  field.  One  style 
of  architecture  —  Tuscan  Romanesque  —  and  one 
material  —  rough  gray  granite  —  have  been  used 
for  all  the  halls,  so  that  the  college  group  is  one  of 
singular  simplicity,  beauty,  and  congruity.  Of  the 
ten  new  buildings  erected  for  college  purposes,  the 
picture  here  given  shows  only  the  four  on  the  south- 
west quarter  of  the  grounds.  The  church  at  the  left- 
hand  corner  is  used  for  chapel  purposes,  and  for 
lectures  and  assemblies  of  various  kinds.  The  next 
building  is  for  administration  and  general  instruc- 
tion, the  next  is  the  gymnasium,  and  that  in  the 
rear  is  the  biological  laboratory. 

For  a  college  which  is  scarcely  sixteen  years  old, 
Baltimore  may  certainly  be  held  to  have  made  great 
strides.  When  the  institution  was  opened,  there 
was  doubt  in  many  minds  as  to  whether  any  real 
need  of  a  woman's  college  of  the  highest  grade 
existed  in  the  Maryland  city.  For  twenty-five  years 
the  project  of  founding  here  a  young  ladies'  sem- 
inary of  the  common  type  had  been  mooted,  and 
at  last  the  hope  of  doing  this  seemed  near  realiza- 


The  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore       147 

tion.  There  were  many  among  the  friends  of  the 
proposed  institution  who  felt  that  such  a  seminary 
would  fully  meet  any  existing  requirements.  It  is 
now  generally  conceded,  however,  that  the  happiest 
accident  that  ever  happened  to  Baltimore  was  that 
which  made  the  new  institution  a  college  in  the 
true  sense  of  the  word.  Founded  by  the  Baltimore 
conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the 
prime  aim  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  provide 
for  the  needs  of  the  community  which  it  repre- 
sented. Yet  for  a  number  of  years  now  the  college 
has  drawn  its  students  almost,  if  not  quite,  as  largely 
from  the  North  and  West  as  from  Maryland  and 
other  Southern  States.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that 
Baltimore  may  yet  hope  to  compete  successfully 
with  colleges  of  the  same  character  in  the  North. 

Although  the  college  is  the  offspring  of  a  de- 
nominational body,  more  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  its 
students  are  from  families  not  affiliated  with  the 
Methodist  sect.  This  comes  about,  no  doubt,  from 
the  fact  that  the  college  has,  from  the  outset,  pur- 
sued the  liberal  policy  of  placing  the  least  possible 
emphasis  upon  its  denominational  relations,  the  aim' 
of  the  Church  in  founding  the  institution  having 
been  simply  to  secure  to  the  young  women  of  the 
community  in  which  it .  exists  certain  intellectual 
advantages  under  conditions  in  no  way  subversive 


148  The  College  Girl  of  America 

of  their  moral  and  religious  welfare.  Very  nat- 
urally, however,  the  foundation  being  as  it  is,  mem- 
bers of  the  college  are  required  to  attend  the  service 
held  every  morning  (except  Saturday  and  Sunday), 
in  the  beautiful  little  elliptical  chapel,  which  is  an 
echo  of  San  Vitale  in  Ravenna.  On  Saturday  and 
Sunday  the  devotional  meetings  are  held  in  the  resi- 
dence-halls, and  for  these,  too,  each  student  is  ex- 
pected to  be  on  hand.  Sunday  mornings,  girls  go  to 
service  at  the  city  church  of  the  denomination  with 
which  they  are  affiliated  when  at  home. 

President  Goucher  has  very  strong  ideas  as  to 
what  should  be  done  for  girls  when  at  college.  He 
would  have  a  girl  not  only  acquainted  with  a  wide 
range  of  subjects  during  her  undergraduate  year, 
but  he  would  have  her  know,  besides,  one  or  two 
things  thoroughly.  Superficiality  is  the  last  thing 
the  Woman's  College  proposes  to  inculcate.  Some- 
where, wherever  she  seems  by  nature  to  run 
deepest,  the  girl  here  enrolled  must  do  rigid,  in- 
tensive work.  In  one  subject  or  two  subjects,  she 
is  as  thorough  as  the  four  years  of  college  life 
permit.  Then,  too,  her  electives  are  not  chosen  at 
random.  The  curriculum  is  ranged  in  related  groups 
of  subjects ;  her  electives,  or  "  minors,"  have  to  be 
picked  from  the  same  group  to  which  her  major 
subject  belongs.     So,  while  the  variety  of  the  re- 


The  Woman*  s  College  of  Baltimore       149 

quired  work  makes  for  liberality  and  wide  intelli- 
gence, the  check  of  the  group  system  of  electives 
prevents  a  girl's  course  from  being  too  widely 
scattered.  A  student,  for  instance,  who  elects  the 
German-French  group,  carries  on  the  study  of 
French  daily  for  a  period  of  two  years  beyond  the 
point  at  which  others  drop  it,  besides  taking  the 
remaining  studies  prescribed  for  all  alike.  The  re- 
sult is  that  the  girl  who  has  chosen  this  particular 
group  feels  at  the  end  of  her  course  that,  besides  the 
discipline  received  from  studying  those  other  things 
that  go  to  make  up  a  college  curriculum,  she  has 
such  knowledge  of  her  particular  subjects  as  must 
give  her  a  confidence  in  herself  and  her  powers  not 
possible  to  one  who  has  merely  a  smattering  of 
many  branches,  without  having  gone  very  deeply 
into  any  of  them. 

Culture  in  its  broadest  sense  is  what  Doctor 
Goucher  desires  for  his  girls.  He  believes  that 
every  community  should  have  a  leisure  class,  not 
composed  of  persons  who  have  nothing  to  do,  but 
of  those  who  will  command  time  for  educational, 
benevolent,  and  religious  work,  giving  their  services 
for  the  general  good  without  direct  financial  re- 
turn. This  class  he  would  have  the  graduates  of 
Baltimore  swell.  His  object,  therefore,  is  to  produce 
girls  with  forceful  and  resourceful  personalities. 


150  The  College  Girl  of  America 

A  very  strong  point  in  Doctor  Goucher's  edu- 
cational creed  is  that  a  young  woman  has  as  much 
need  to  be  trained  in  social  ease  and  grace  as  in 
profounder  things.  Every  effort  is  made  at  Balti- 
more to  develop  appreciation,  womanliness,  and 
poise.  He  will  have  no  "  digs."  In  his  opinion  the 
truest  womanliness  is  not  attained  by  the  "  grind." 

This  educator  believes  that  provision  should  also 
be  made  for  regulated  social  functions.  Dinner  is 
a  leisurely  and  a  somewhat  formal  meal.  Recep- 
tions are  provided  for  at  irregular  intervals,  and 
calls  from  young  men  permitted  within  proper 
limits.  Nor  will  he  have  his  residence-halls  pre- 
sided over  by  teachers.  "  Instructors  will  have  more 
and  a  better  influence  if  they  come  to  their  lecture- 
rooms  with  the  force  of  a  fresh  relation,  and  occa- 
sionally entertain  their  students,  a  few  at  a  time, 
in  their  own  homes."  His  faculty,  too,  must  be 
about  equally  divided  between  men  and  women, 
chosen  because  of  their  strong,  helpful  personality, 
as  well  as  because  of  their  scholarship  and  their 
aptness  for  teaching. . 

The  underlying  thought  of  all  this  is  his  desire 
that  girls  shall  not  become  disarticulated  from  life 
during  their  college  course.  Hence  the  city  site. 
"  Women  set  off  by  themselves  in  a  country  soli- 
tude are  prone  to  develop  abnormally.    They  accus- 


The  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore       151 

torn  themselves  so  completely  to  the  artificial  stand- 
ards of  community  life,  that  when  they  go  home 
they  must  spend  one,  and  perhaps  several,  painful 
years  in  becoming  readjusted."  So  plant  your  col- 
lege in  a  city,  President  Goucher  says,  near  enough 
to  the  suburbs  to  command  clean  air  and  easy  access 
to  the  open  field,  and  you  can  keep  your  girls 
healthy  and  yet  in  normal  relation  to  the  world 
of  men  and  women.  Again,  for  country-bred  girls, 
who  inevitably  make  up  no  small  proportion  of  the 
clientele  of  any  college,  contact  with  the  elevating 
life  of  the  city  is  by  no  means  to  be  despised. 

Incidentally,  Baltimore  gains  greatly  in  other 
than  social  ways  from  its  city  site.  It  has,  just 
around  the  corner,  a  station  of  the  Pratt  Library, 
and  the  vast  resources  of  the  Peabody  and  Johns 
Hopkins  Library  are  also  at  hand  to  draw  upon. 
From  the  university,  too,  come  lecturers,  and,  for 
that  matter,  full  professors.  Always  there  are  many 
Hopkins  graduates  on  the  college  faculty.  Wash- 
ington is  within  easy  reach  of  the  students,  and  at 
its  Smithsonian  Institute  every  possible  facility  is 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  girls  from  the  Woman's 
College.  Moreover,  many  of  the  illustrious  foreign- 
ers who  visit  the  nation's  capitol  are  easily  per- 
suaded to  run  down  to  Baltimore  for  lectures  at 
Johns  Hopkins  and  at  President  Goucher's  charge. 


152  The  College  Girl  of  America 

The  average  student  leaves  this  institution,  it  is 
interesting  to  learn,  in  much  better  health  than  she 
entered  it.  From  inclination  or  training,  or  because 
social  standards  restrain,  young  women  are  usually- 
more  sedentary  than  young  men.  Their  pursuits, 
when  not  at  study,  tend  rather  to  withdraw  them 
from  exercise  than  to  invite  them  to  it.  Careful 
provision  has  therefore  been  made  at  Baltimore 
for  systematic  required  exercises  under  the  personal 
direction  of  skilful  medical  advisers  and  specialists 
in  mechanico-therapeutics.  "  For  a  disciplined  body 
is  as  essential  to  a  thoroughly  educated  woman  as  a 
cultured  mind  or  loyal  spirit."  The  climax  of  Bal- 
timore's healthful  system  naturally  comes  in  its 
gymnasium,  which  has  all  kinds  of  appliances  helpful 
to  girls;  in  connection  with  it  is  maintained  ex- 
cellent basket-ball  practice,  as  well  as  instruction 
in  swimming.  Health  has  again  been  carefully  con- 
sidered in  the  planning  of  the  three  college  homes. 
These  are  situated  far  enough  away  from  the  college 
to  necessitate  an  early  morning  walk  and  to  remove 
them  from  any  possibility  of  an  overlapping  academic 
atmosphere,  which  the  president  considers  extremely 
bad.  In  plan,  the  houses  are  like  the  best  appointed 
apartment-hotels,  but  they  are  carefully  presided 
over  by  women  chosen  for  dignity  and  social  effi- 
ciency. 


The  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore       153 

In  the  ideal  college  for  women  the  number  of 
students,  according  to  Doctor  Goucher,  should 
never  be  more  than  about  four  hundred.  The  last 
report  gives  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  as  Balti- 
more's registration.  Of  this  number  only  one  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  are  from  Maryland.  So  it  is  plain 
that  this  college  stands  in  no  immediate  danger  of 
the  "  provinciality  "  which  this  educational  leader 
particularly  deplores  as  a  "  woman's  college  tend- 
ency." 

For  day  students  the  cost  is  $125  a  year;  for 
residents,  $400  a  year. 

To  those  of  us  who  are  inclined  to  think  meanly 
of  education  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,  a 
visit  to  the  Baltimore  Woman's  College  is  in  the 
nature  of  a  revelation.  For  not  only  are  its  capped 
and  gowned  maidens  decidedly  academic  in  aspect, 
but  its  faculty  is  very  largely  made  up  of  men  and 
women  who  have  won  advanced  degrees  and  at- 
tained distinctly  high  rank  in  scholarly  directions. 
Its  courses,  too,  are  immensely  ambitious  in  scope, 
and  its  museums  and  libraries  are  second  to  none  in 
equipment.  And,  most  important  of  all,  it  has  in 
its  president  an  able  man,  filled  with  what  seem 
to  many  the  best  ideas  ever  evolved  concerning  the 
proper  method  of  educating  girls. 


THE    RANDOLPH  -  MACON    WOMAN'S 
COLLEGE 

The  purest  type  of  Southern  college  girl  is  prob- 
ably that  produced  by  the  Randolph-Macon  Insti- 
tution at  Lynchburg,  Virginia.  This  school  is  a 
branch  of  the  Randolph-Macon  Methodist  educa- 
tional system  which  stretches  through  Virginia, 
and  is  presided  over  by  William  Waugh 
Smith,  A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  an  educator  of  considerable 
ability.  It  is  conscientiously  and  splendidly  aca- 
demic, and  its  girls  are  enthusiastic,  generous,  and 
loyal,  as  well  as  eager  to  represent  the  old  Virginia 
ideals,  with  such  added  breadth  of  culture  as  this 
generation  affords.  The  moral,  as  well  as  the  men- 
tal, atmosphere  of  the  college  is  healthy  and  uplift- 
ing. Probably  there  is  no  institution  in  the  South 
which  cares  less  than  does  Randolph-Macon  for 
what  a  girl  has,  or  more  for  what  a  girl  is.  The 
brief  but  comprehensive  rule  of  life  here  —  the  very 
corner-stone,  indeed,  of  the  institution's  discipline  — 
is  "  Studentlike  and  ladylike  conduct  is  expected 
of  all  who  remain  with  us."    This  adequately  covers 

154 


A    RANDOLPH  -  MACON     GIRL. 


The  Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College    iS5 

the  ground.  For,  while  it  does  not  imply  absence  of 
controlling  influence,  it  states  concisely  and  accu- 
rately the  attitude  of  the  officers  toward  the  Ran- 
dolph-Macon ideal,  any  deviation  from  which  could 
not  be  safely  indulged  in  by  a  girl  who  desired 
to  enjoy  here  the  richness  and  fulness  of  college 
life. 

The  new  student  coming  to  Lynchburg  is  provided 
in  advance  with  a  set  of  college  colours,  which 
enables  her  to  be  quickly  identified  by  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  school  whom  she  finds  waiting  at 
the  station,  and  by  the  kindly  Christian  Association 
girls  there  to  help  her  feel  at  home.  A  fifteen 
minutes'  ride  on  the  electric-car  line  brings  her  to 
the  college  gate,  from  which  the  Randolph-Macon 
building  seems  very  large  as  well  as  very  beautiful, 
as  it  sits  above  an  undulating  expanse  of  blue  grass 
against  a  mountain  background.  Inside,  the  building 
proves  even  larger  than  at  first  view.  The  grand 
corridor  itself  is,  in  point  of  fact,  more  than  a  hun- 
dred yards  long,  while  up-stairs  are  very  many  spa- 
cious lecture-rooms,  chemical,  physical,  biological, 
and  psychological  laboratories,  music-rooms,  a  beau- 
tiful library,  a  chapel,  a  large  literary-hall,  a  well- 
equipped  gymnasium,  and  a  skylighted  art  studio. 
Two-thirds  of  this  immense  building  is  devoted  to 


156  The  College  Girl  of  America 

public  uses,  the  remaining  third  being  given  over 
to  dormitories. 

The  entering  student  soon  finds  that  the  relation 
existing  between  the  undergraduates  and  their  in- 
structors is  almost  ideal.  Men  as  well  as  women 
belong  to  the  faculty,  and  the  wives  and  families 
of  professors  feel  a  very  real  interest  in  the  girls 
who  have  come  to  Randolph-Macon  to  grow  into 
women.  Acquirements  at  this  college  are  not  simply 
book-learned;  the  development  is  many-sided,  so 
that,  after  the  student's  course  is  completed,  she 
must  find  herself  intellectually,  physically,  socially, 
and  spiritually  better  fitted  to  enter  life  and  to  meet 
its  obligations.  The  teachers  are  specialists,  en- 
thusiastic and  progressive  in  their  work,  and  they 
arouse  the  ambition  of  the  student  and  make  her 
put  forth  her  best  efforts.  The  associations  are 
stimulating,  and  distractions  are  excluded. 

Let  us  follow  a  Randolph-Macon  girl  through' 
an  ordinary  day,  and  see  how  her  twenty- four  hours 
are  sp^ent.  The  rising-gong  sounds  at  seven,  the 
dusky  "  utility  man  "  who  performs  this  duty  evi- 
dently having  that  joy  in  his  work  for  which  Pres- 
ident Eliot  of  Harvard  has  lately  been  calling.  At 
seven  forty-five  comes  breakfast,  a  meal  requiring 
not  more  than  half  an  hour,  even  for  the  least 
expeditious,   while  most  girls  are  quite  ready  to 


THE    COLLEGE    BUILDING. 


THE    GYMNASIUM. 


The  Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College    157 

leave  at  the  expiration  of  the  twenty  minutes'  table- 
time  required  of  all.  Then  the  morning  mail  is 
distributed  —  a  part  of  the  day's  work  which  is 
always  of  absorbing  interest.  From  eight  forty-five 
till  nine  is  devoted  to  enjoyable  chapel  exercises, 
which  the  professors  conduct  in  weekly  turn,  and 
from  nine  until  ten  minutes  after  one  come  the  reci- 
tation periods.  Such  students  as  have  no  classes 
are  meanwhile  at  work  in  their  rooms,  or  in  the 
college  library. 

Dinner  is  at  noon,  and  the  food,  the  cooking,  and 
the  service  is  of  the  kind  dear  to  the  Southern  girl's 
heart.  After  dinner  recitations  are  resumed  for 
about  two  hours.  E^ch  student  has  three  or  four 
lecture  periods  a  day,  perhaps,  but  when'  these  are 
over  gymnasium  attendance,  walking,  basket-ball, 
and  tennis  fill  up  the  time  until  tea,  which  comes  at 
half-past  six.  After  tea,  evening  worship,  and  the 
distribution  of  the  afternoon  mail,  there  is  a  delight- 
ful half-hour  which  each  girl  spends  as  suits  her 
best.  The  chat,  the  promenading,  and  the  sunset 
confidences  of  this  period  are  brought  to  an  end 
by  the  study-bell,  which  rings  at  seven-thirty.  Then 
the  girls  retire  to  their  rooms,  and  quiet  reigns 
until  half-past  ten,  when  the  retiring-bell  rings,  and 
all  must  go  to  bed. 

So  runs  the  daily  week-day  life.     On  Sunday 


158  The  College  Girl  of  America 

morning  there  is  regular  Bible  study,  and  each  of 
the  resident  professors  teaches  a  class.  Then,  in  such 
groups  as  they  prefer,  the  girls  go  to  church  in  the 
city,  sitting  in  the  congregation  with  other  wor- 
shippers. Sunday  afternoon,  under  the  presidency 
of  a  popular  woman  instructor,  the  Ethical  Society 
meets,  and  discusses  informally  such  questions  as 
"  Meddlesomeness,"  "  College  Duties,"  or  "  The 
Proper  Keeping  of  the  Sabbath."  Sunday  evening 
after  tea  there  is  an  hour  of  religious  exercises, 
conducted  three  times  a  month  by  some  officer  of 
the  college,  or  by  a  visiting  minister,  and  once  a 
month  by  the  missionary  department  of  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association,  a  body  of  large 
membership  and  broad  usefulness  at  this  college. 

Monday  is  the  free  day,  which  means  the  busiest 
'day  of  the  week.  The  morning  is  usually  devoted 
to  odds  and  ends  of  work;  but  in  the  afternoon 
there  is  visiting,  shopping,  or  whatever  else  seems 
to  the  individual  girl  the  most  attractive  fashion 
of  having  a  good  time. 

Wednesday  afternoon  the  workaday  programme 
is  varied  by  a  weekly  musical  rehearsal,  preceded 
by  an  instructive  lecture  which  enables  even  non- 
musical  students  to  understand  somewhat,  and  appre- 
ciate a  good  deal,  the  choice  programme  then  pre- 
sented.   Saturday  also  ends  with  a  celebration.    For 


The  Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College    159 

now  the  work  of  the  week  is  over,  and  there  is 
opportunity  for  society  meetings  with  their  essays, 
debates,  and  so  on.  After  tea  on  Saturday  comes 
a  Current  Events  Club,  with  papers  and  discussions 
on  matters  of  current  interest.  Every  other  Satur- 
day is  Social  Evening,  "  when  gentlemen  who  are 
on  the  college  visiting-list  are  free  to  call." 

Home  Evening,  which  alternates  on  Saturday 
with  Social  Evening,  is,  however,  the  "  best  time 
of  the  week  "  to  most  of  the  students.  "  Our  Alma 
Mater,"  one  Randolph-Macon  girl  declares,  "  is 
never  so  attractive  as  when  she  thus  bids  us  put 
away  our  books  and  gather  in  the  parlour  for  a 
jolly  good  time."  Sometimes  the  good  time  is 
social  and  humourous;  sometimes  it  is  musical; 
sometimes  literary.  A  Dickens  Evening,  with 
everybody  representing  a  well-known  character,  has 
on  several  occasions  given  great  pleasure.  Tableaux 
vivants  from  "  Mother  Goose  "  are  always  amusing; 
for  when  a  dignified  professor  becomes  Simple 
Simon,  the  girls  in  his  courses  naturally  get  con- 
siderable fun  out  of  the  situation. 

Thanksgiving  and  Christmas  are,  of  course,  times 
of  special  interest,  for  then  there  are  extraordinary 
offerings  in  the  dining-room,  as  well  as  jest  and 
jollity  in  the  parlour.  Field  Day,  devoted  to  athletic 
competition,  when  the  experts  in  basket-ball,  tennis, 


i6o  The  College  Girl  of  America 

running,  arid  other  sports  of  skill  and  grace  win 
never-to-be-forgotten  laurels,  is  open  to  visitors,  as 
well  as  to  the  students,  and  is  very  much  enjoyed. 

Of  out-of-door  excursions  this  college  has  its  own 
distinctive  variety.  The  Natural  Bridge,  one  of  the 
great  wonders  of  this  big  country,  is  easily  accessible 
from  Randolph-Macon,  as  are  also  the  Peaks  of 
Otter,  a  favourite  resort  for  May  outings.  To  take 
a  Friday  evening  train,  get  to  the  foot  of  the  Peaks 
about  six  o'clock,  and  hasten  up  the  steep  hill  to 
see  the  sunset  from  the  top;  to  pack  into  the  one 
big  dormitory  of  the  house  on  the  summit,  and,  after 
such  sleep  as  a  big  crowd  of  girls  can  get  under 
these  novel  and  exciting  conditions,  to  rise  by  day- 
light and  enjoy  the  glorious  sight  of  mountains, 
plains,  and  river  beneath  waking  to  life,  is  to 
be  uplifted  and  awed  —  to  have,  in  a  word,  such  an 
experience  as  one  can  never  forget. 

A  great  deal  is  made  at  Randolph-Macon  —  and 
with  cause,  too,  it  seems  to  me  —  of  the  fact  that 
it  is  the  only  woman's  college  in  its  section  with  a 
standard  high  enough  to  entitle  it  to  recognition 
along  with  the  old  and  famous  women's  colleges  of 
the  North.  But  if  its  standards  are  high,  its  prices 
are  low.  The  entire  yearly  expense,  including  tui- 
tion, is  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.    That  the 


The  Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College    i6i 

peculiar  advantages  it  affords  are  being  appreciated 
may  be  understood  from  the  fact  that,  though  it  is 
only  ten  years  old,  the  last  report  gives  the  total  num- 
ber of  its  students  as  two  hundred  and  sixty-three. 
Best  sign  of  all,  there  is  absolutely  no  preparatory 
department  here.  The  system  is  largely  elective, 
however,  and  it  is  quite  possible  for  students  who 
do  not  care  to  go  in  for  the  A.  B.  or  the  A.  M. 
degree  to  secure  proficiency  in  some  special  subject. 
But  it  is  worth  noting  that  by  far  the  greater  number 
of  the  girls  do  qualify  for  degrees  and  take  them 
with  honours. 

Randolph-Macon  may  well  be  proud  of  the  work 
which  it  is  doing  for  Southern  girls.  Even  the 
casual  visitor  feels  strongly  the  need  and  the  value 
of  this  college.  And  of  course  no  young  woman 
who  has  spent  four  years  in  the  institution  can 
possibly  fail  to  appreciate  the  college's  great  mission 
in  the  Southland;  it  is  with  deep  feeling  that  she 
sings  at  Commencement  this  alumnae  song: 

GOD    BLESS   YOU,    RANDOLPH -MACON 

"  Oh  !  we  came  from  North  and  South,  from  East  and  West, 

To  Randolph-Macon,  then  to  us  a  name, 
And  every  college  passed  was  called  the  best, 

And  all,  indeed,  to  us  were  much  the  same ; 
But  once  we  entered  Randolph-Macon's  halls, 

And  passed  within  the  shelter  of  her  door, 


i62  The  College  Girl  of  America 

We  found  both  love  and  knowledge  in  the  dear  old  mother 
college, 
And  it's  Alma  Mater  now  for  evermore. 

CHORUS 

"  Oh  !  dear  old  Alma  Mater,  how  majestic  now  you  stand, 
You're  a  credit  to  Virginia  and  a  blessing  to  the  land ; 
May  your  glory  never  lessen,  may  your  children  e'er  be  true, 
God  bless  you,  Randolph- Macon !  here's  a  student's  love  for 
you." 


A   BROWN    GIRL. 


THE  WOMAN'S  COLLEGE  IN  BROWN 
UNIVERSITY 

To  the  casual  visitor  who  encounters  book-bur- 
dened girls  on  the  Brown  campus,  or  who,  perhaps, 
looking-  into  a  Brown  classroom,  sees  young  women 
there  beside  young  men,  conditions  at  this  university 
appear  at  first  blush  very  like  pure  coeducation.  Yet 
this  college  is  of  the  type  described  as  coordinate, 
rather  than  coeducational,  inasmuch  as  the  life  of 
its  students,  its  undergraduate  courses,  its  class-day 
exercises,  and  all  its  social  activities  are  separate  — 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  library  and  the 
laboratories  are  always  freely  opened  to  girls,  and 
on  the  day  when  Brown's  degrees  are  conferred  in 
the  beautiful  old  Baptist  meeting-house  (which  dates 
back  to  1775,  and  declares  itself  "built  for  the 
worship  of  Almighty  God,  and  to  hold  Commence- 
ments in  "),  girls  in  caps  and  gowns  are  on  hand, 
just  as  men  are. 

Lectures  for  the  body  of  the  women  students,  how- 
ever, are  given  altogether  in  Pembroke  Hall,  a 
substantial  modern  building  after  the  old  English 

163 


i64  The  College  Girl  of  America 

university  style  of  the  fifteenth  century,  erected  by 
the  Rhode  Island  Society  for  the  Collegiate  Educa- 
tion of  Women,  and  by  them  presented  to  Brown 
University.  Organized  in  1895  and  incorporated  in 
1896,  this  society  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  and 
promoting  the  higher  education  of  women  in  Brown 
had  from  the  beginning  the  cordial  cooperation  of 
President  Andrews,  then  the  head  of  that  college, 
who,  as  early  as  1891,  admitted  women  to  Brown 
courses,  and  worked  with  such  devotion  for  the 
girls  of  Rhode  Island  as  to  make  it  very  fitting 
that  the  Alumnse  Association  of  the  women's  col- 
lege now  bears  his  name.  The  name  Pembroke 
Hall  came  from  that  of  Roger  Williams  College  in 
England,  pictures  of  which  are  appropriately  prom- 
inent to-day  in  the  office  of  the  capable  and  very 
charming  dean  who  acts  as  the  head  of  the  girls' 
part  of  Brown.  The  other  executive  officers  of  the 
woman's  college  are  those  members  of  the  univer- 
sity faculty  who  are  most  intimately  connected  with 
the  work  at  Pembroke  Hall.  But  what  is,  perhaps, 
of  greatest  importance  to  the  woman's  department 
of  the  university,  is  the  warm  interest  and  support 
which  the  best  people  in  Rhode  Island  have  given  to 
this  laudable  endeavour  to  provide  for  the  girls  of 
their  State  the  highest  educational  facilities.  Nor  has 
the  attitude  of  Brown  itself  been  any  less  generous 


Woman's  College  in  Brown  University    165 

and  fine.  At  first,  to  be  sure,  the  women  were 
merely  tolerated;  but  now  they  are  cordially  wel- 
comed.    They  have  won  their  place. 

Thus  far  one  dormitory  has  proved  quite  suffi- 
cient for  the  needs  of  Pembroke  girls,  as  a  very  large 
number  of  them  are  able  to  live  at  home  while 
attending  college.  Their  residence-hall  is  Slater 
Memorial  Homestead,  a  singularly  beautiful  build- 
ing, with  not  a  little  of  the  old-time  charm  to  be 
noted  in  many  of  the  best  Rhode  Island  mansions. 
Furnished  by  Mrs.  Horatio  Slater's  daughter,  Mrs. 
Washburn,  it  is  very  liberally  supplied  with  such 
pictures,  books,  and  tasteful  rugs  as  conduce  to  that 
refined  atmosphere  so  important  for  college  girls. 
Nor  is  this  an  expensive  place  of  residence;  the 
charge  for  rooms  and  board  averages  only  six  dol- 
lars and  a  half  a  week.  Tuition  at  Brown,  it  should 
be  said,  is  one  hundred  and  five  dollars  a  year. 

With  the  exception  of  a  Classical  Club,  founded 
in  honour  of  Albert  Harkness,  professor  emeritus, 
which  meets  five  or  six  times  a  year  on  Saturday 
afternoons  in  the  homes  of  faculty  members,  and 
to  which  both  the  men  and  women  students  of 
Brown  belong,  all  the  clubs  open  to  girls  are  indi- 
vidual organizations.  Of  these,  besides  the  Greek 
Letter  fraternities,  there  are  the  Komians,  a  dramatic 
body,  which,  in  the  spring  of  1903,  gave  "  Pyg- 


i66  The  College  Girl  of  America 

malion  and  Galatea"  with  great  success,  and  has 
usually  some  worthy  drama  or  other  in  rehearsal; 
the  Glee  Club,  which  gives  one  big  concert  a  year 
in  the  college  and  a  few  recitals  in  near-by  towns; 
and  the  Athletic  Association,  which  embraces  the 
sporting  interests  of  the  college. 

A  very  efficient  body  at  Pembroke  is  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association.  This  conducts  each 
fall  a  large  reception,  in  the  course  of  which  the 
freshmen  are  welcomed  to  college.  All  girls  are  at 
once  urged  to  belong  to  the  Association,  and  half  the 
students  in  the  college  accept  this  invitation,  the 
result  being  that  the  Christian  Association  is  a  very 
important  factor  in  the  college  life.  Each  May  it 
gives  a  festival  with  a  theatrical  and  bazaar  attach- 
ment, for  the  purpose  of  raising  funds  to  send  dele- 
gates to  the  Silver  Bay  Conference. 

The  most  important  organization  among  the 
Brown  women  is  that  which  is  devoted  to  student 
government.  This  has  worked  remarkably  well, 
though  it  is  of  quite  recent  origin.  Under  its  super- 
vision, attendance  at  recitation  and  at  chapel,  as 
well  as  talking  in  the  halls,  and  various  other  phases 
of  college  life,  are  regulated.  Chapel  is  held  every 
day  except  Saturday  at  a  quarter  before  nine,  in  the 
one  large  room  at  the  top  of  Pembroke  Hall  avail- 
able for  assembly  purposes.    The  dean,  in  academic 


Woman's  College  in  Brown  University    167 

robes,  conducts  the  service,  reading  not  only  from 
the  Bible,  but  also  from  one  or  another  of  the 
beautiful  poets  whose  works  are  justly  famous. 
This  last  rather  original  form  of  worship  is  espe- 
cially enjoyed  by  the  students. 

Of  course  the  girls  at  Pembroke  Hall  have  their 
good  times,  as  do  all  other  college  girls.  At  a 
recent  Hallowe'en  party,  there  was  a  jolly  informal 
dance  in  a  hall  decorated  with  Jack-o'-lanterns  cut 
out  of  real  pumpkins.  The  programmes  of  paper 
Jack-o'-lanterns  opened  to  show  the  dance-order.  If 
one  may  judge,  too,  from  the  life  as  reflected  in  that 
admirable  college  magazine,  the  Sepiad  (a  kind  of 
play  on  the  word  Brown),  published  four  times  a 
year,  there  is  quite  enough  variety  and  colour  in 
the  undergraduate  days  at  Pembroke.  None  the  less, 
the  general  tenor  of  life  here  may,  properly  enough, 
be  called  academic.  The  girls  have  the  appearance 
of  young  women  to  whom  student  opportunities 
mean  very  much.  They  like  to  remember  that  the 
president  of  Wellesley  had  the  advantage  of  Brown 
courses,  and  they  are  justly  proud  of  the  fact  that 
the  first  woman  to  take  a  Brown  degree  is  now 
president  of  Mt.  Holyoke  College. 

Inasmuch  as  the  college  is  so  largely  used  by  day 
students,  it  is  decidedly  important  to  know  what 
provision  has  been  made  for  the  comfort  of  the  girls 


i68  The  College  Girl  of  America 

who  go  home  at  night.  Pembroke  Hall  may  certainly 
be  dubbed  superlatively  kind  in  this  direction.  Its 
beautiful  library,  with  classic  frieze,  and  its  spa- 
cious reading-room  (supplied  by  the  Andrews 
Association  with  all  the  magazines  and  with  one 
or  two  good  daily  papers),  are  good  for  the  eye  as 
well  as  for  the  rnind;  they  also  have  chairs  that 
rest  the  back. 

Though  the  women  of  Brown  University  receive, 
with  the  men,  a  Brown  degree  on  Brown's  Com- 
mencement Day,  they  have  their  own  class  exercises 
out-of-doors  the  Tuesday  preceding  Commence- 
ment. For  this  a  canopy  is  erected  over  the  "  one 
tenth  of  a  mile  "  campus  at  the  back  of  Pembroke 
Hall,  and  here,  comfortably  shaded  from  the  sun, 
the  friends  of  the  students  are  in  waiting  when  the 
graduating  girls  in  caps  and  gowns  march  out  in 
the  aisle  of  laurel  for  their  interesting  ivy  exer- 
cises. The  programme  opens  with  a  welcome  by 
the  president  of  the  senior  class.  This  is  followed 
by  a  speech  from  Dean  Emery,  after  which  one  of 
the  seniors  addresses  an  inspiring  talk  to  the  under- 
graduates. President  Faunce,  too,  has  a  share  in 
the  day's  entertainment.  But  the  real  interest  comes 
when  the  seniors  leave  the  campus  and  plant  their 
ivy  at  the  side  of  Pembroke  Hall.  The  trowel,  after 
being  used,  is  presented  to  a  junior,  who  receives  it 


Woman's  College  in  Brown  University    169 

with  appreciative  remarks.  And  then,  to  the  music 
of  the  ''  Old  Oaken  Bucket,"  comes  this  song,  dear 
to  all  Sons  and  Daughters  of  Brown: 

"  Alma  Mater,  we  hail  thee  with  loyal  devotion 
And  bring  to  thine  altars  our  ofE'ring  of  praise. 
Our  hearts  swell  within  us  with  joyful  emotion 
As  the  name  of  Old  Brown  in  loud  chorus  we  raise. 
The  happiest  moments  of  youth's  fleeting  hours 
We've  passed  'neath  the  shade  of  these  time-honoured  walls ; 
And  sorrows  as  transient  as  April's  brief  showers 
Have  clouded  our  life  in  Brunonia's  halls. 

"  And  when  life's  golden  autumn  with  winter  is  blending, 
And  brows  now  so  radiant  are  furrowed  with  care ; 
When  the  blightings  of  age  on  our  heads  are  descending, 
With  no  early  friends  all  our  sorrows  to  share, 
Oh,  then,  as  in  memory  backward  we  wander, 
And  roam  the  long  vista  of  past  years  adown. 
On  the  scenes  of  our  student  life  often  we'll  ponder 
And  smile  as  we  murmur  the  name  of  Old  Brown." 


ELMIRA    COLLEGE 

Elmira  College  has  a  unique  claim  to  the  atten- 
tion of  college  girls,  inasmuch  as  it  seems  to  have 
been  the  first  institution  in  this  country  to  confer 
the  Bachelor's  degree  upon  women.  The  story  of 
the  founding  of  this  institution,  often  called  "  The 
Mother  of  Colleges,"  is  of  singular  interest. 

The  initiative  mental  conception  that  finally 
materialized  in  Elmira  College  is  credited  to  a 
woman  of  keen  intellect  and  noble  soul,  who  lived  in 
England  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  She 
afterward  became  one  of  the  pilgrims  to  Holland, 
later  emigrating  in  the  Mayflower  to  New  England. 
It  is  claimed  that  she  had  fast  in  her  mind  the  idea 
which  eventually  grew  to  the  dignity  of  a  purpose 
—  that  provision  should  be  made  for  the  education 
of  women  on  an  equal  basis  with  men.  In  May, 
1783,  her  great-great-granddaughter,  Phebe  Allen 
Hinsdale,  who  inherited  the  idea,  was  born,  and,  as 
she  grew  in  years,  her  desire  to  start  a  woman's 
college  increased  proportionately.    Her  name  should 

stand  among  the  first,  therefore,  on  the  honour-page 

170 


AN    ELMIRA    GIRL. 


Elmira  College  171 

of  the  history  of  colleges  for  women.  What  Mary 
Lyon  was  to  a  later  period,  Phebe  Allen  Hinsdale 
was  to  an  earlier  —  as  Mary  Lyon's  highest  ideal 
was  a  seminary  for  girls,  Phebe  Allen  Hinsdale's 
was  a  college  for  women. 

It  was  through  her  son,  Samuel  Robbins  Brown, 
that  the  purpose  so  long  unfulfilled  was  to  be  real- 
ized. This  son,  born  June  16,  18 10,  became,  in 
time,  a  graduate  from  Yale  and  from  Union  Sem- 
inary, New  York.  In  childhood,  in  youth,  in  young 
manhood,  his  mother  had  faithfully  inspired  in  him, 
along  with  other  exalted  ideals,  that  having  to  do 
with  a  college  for  women.  Thus,  when  he  became 
pastor  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  at  Owasco, 
near  Auburn,  New  York,  he  determined  to  put  into 
action  his  long-slumbering  desire  for  a  woman's  col- 
lege. A  meeting  was  called,  accordingly,  in  185 1, 
in  the  consistory  rooms  of  the  Second  Reformed 
Dutch  Church  of  Albany,  and  to  those  present 
Doctor  Brown  explained  his  desire  and  outlined  his 
plan  to  establish,  exclusively  for  women,  a  college 
which  should  be  of  the  same  grade  as  colleges  for 
men. 

The  task  was  undertaken  with  a  will.  Auburn 
being  selected  as  the  place  of  location  and  Doctor 
Brown  elected  chairman  of  the  committee  on  organ- 
ization.    But,  just  at  the  time  that  this  movement 


172  The  College  Girl  of  America 

was  being  so  vigorously  pushed  forward  in  one 
New  York  town,  there  Hved  in  the  village  of 
Elmira,  not  far  away,  a  man  of  strong  mind  and 
warm  heart,  Simeon  Benjamin  by  name,  who,  hear- 
ing of  the  project,  was  fired  with  an  ambition  to 
have  the  new  college  established  in  his  own  com- 
munity. This  man  (an  elder  in  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church)  wrote  of  his  wish  to  Doctor  Brown, 
who  was  by  this  time  tremendously  perplexed  as  to 
the  funds  for  his  splendid  undertaking,  that  if  the  col- 
lege were  located  in  Elmira,  he,  Simeon  Benjamin, 
would  give  eighty  thousand  dollars  toward  it.  Be- 
lieving that  a  liberal  initial  equipment  was  a  neces- 
sity, the  college  authorities  accepted  Mr.  Benjamin's 
offer,  and  at  once  put  up  the  necessary  first  building 
on  the  fine  site  where  it  still  stands.  The  college 
was  opened  for  students  in  September,  1855, 
and  the  following  year  the  Rev.  Augustus  W. 
Cowles,  D.  D.,  a  graduate  of  Union  College  in  the 
class  of  1841,  and  of  the  Union  Theological  Sem- 
inary in  1856,  became  president  of  the  institution, 
a  position  which  he  held  technically  until  1889,  and 
practically  until  1897. 

The  long  encumbency  of  Doctor  Cowles  may 
justly  be  termed  the  initiative  peribd  of  college 
education  for  women.  In  his  earlier  years  he  had 
many  obstacles  to  encounter.    Prejudices  there  were 


W  J  ^^m  ^^m  ^^p  ^^^  ^^t 


Q    Q 


Elmira  College  173 

on  every  side  that  demanded  wisdom  and  courage 
of  the  highest  order  to  overcome.  Among  univer- 
sity and  college  men,  and  also  among  parents,  there 
was  strong  and  freely  expressed  opposition  to  send- 
ing young  women  to  college.  That  President 
Cowles  met  and  dissipated  such  opposition  is  seen, 
however,  in  the  fact  that  the  institution  over  which 
he  presided  was,  soon  after  his  advent,  full  of  stu- 
dents eager  for  college  training,  and  that  within 
ten  years  of  the  founding  of  Elmira  College  Mr. 
Vassar  of  Poughkeepsie  wrote  to  him  asking  for 
instructions  how  to  proceed  to  the  establishment 
of  a  second  college  for  women.  These  instructions 
were  given,  and  in  due  time  there  was  established 
and  opened  in  the  city  of  Poughkeepsie  the  dis- 
tinguished college  which  Matthew  Vassar  endowed. 
Quite  naturally  the  question  may  be  asked  at  this 
point,  "  Why,  if  Elmira  is  so  old  and  has  so  hon- 
ourable a  record,  do  we  not  know  more  of  it  ?  Why 
has  it  only  some  two  hundred  students  to-day,  while 
Vassar  and  many  another  institution  of  much  later 
date  boasts  of  a  distinctly  larger  student  body?" 
Possibly  the  answer  to  these  questions  may  be  found 
in  this  little  paragraph  from  one  of  the  college 
booklets :  "  It  may  not  be  known  to  this  generation 
that  in  1863 — 64  Elmira  College  received  a  shock 
which  did  decided  violence  to  its  prospects  at  that 


174  "^^^  College  Girl  of  America 

time,  and  reduced  its  student  body  from  a  number 
that  overtaxed  the  capacity  of  the  building  to  a 
very  few.  A  scourge  of  smallpox  overtook  the  town 
to  such  a  degree  that  the  deaths  averaged  at  least 
twenty-five  daily.  The  effect  of  this  was  that 
parents  all  over  the  country  withdrew  their  daugh- 
ters from  the  college  and  sent  them  to  other  insti- 
tutions. Indeed,  it  was  about  this  very  time  that 
Vassar  College  was  opened,  and  large  numbers  of 
students  who  had  come  to  Elmira  went  there,  so 
that  the  tide  was  turned  in  another  direction  by 
circumstances  over  which  no  human  power  had  any 
control.  .  .  ."  In  1896  another  species  of  distress 
came  to  the  historic  institution,  and  threatened  its 
extinction.  The  trouble  this  time  was  financial,  but 
as  a  result  of  it  there  arose  a  vigorous  movement 
to  secure  subscriptions  for  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  which  sum  has  now  been  obtained. 

The  years  which  have  witnessed  this  last-men- 
tioned growth  in  power  and  endowment  have  been 
years  during  which  the  Rev.  Alexander  Cameron 
MacKenzie,  D.  D.,  has  been  serving  Elmira  as  pres- 
ident. When  Doctor  MacKenzie  assumed  the  office, 
he  determined  on  several  special  lines  of  effort. 
Fkst,  to  advance  the  entrance  requirements,  which 
are  now  in  substantial  accord  with  those  of  all  the 
best  colleges  in  the  East;    secondly,  to  enrich  the 


Elmira  College  175 

course  leading  to  a  degree,  which  has  been  done 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  gain  the  commendation  of 
the  Regents  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  the 
respect  of  the  college  world  in  general;  thirdly,  to 
attract  students  in  increased  numbers,  which  has 
resulted  in  doubling  the  entering  classes  during  the 
past  four  years ;  fourthly,,  to  fill  each  vacancy  oc- 
curring in  the  faculty  with  professors  of  experience 
and  advanced  scholarship,  who  have  not  only  taken 
the  A.  B.  degree,  but  who  have  besides  a  doctor's 
degree  acquired  from  some  of  the  great  universities. 
Doctor  MacKenzie  is  further  working,  now,  for  a 
semicentennial  fund  of  half  a  million  dollars,  and  it 
is  hoped  that  his  efforts  will  be  crowned  with  entire 
success  when  the  college  celebrates  its  fiftieth  anni- 
versary in  1905. 

That  Elmira  College  has  all  along  the  way  been 
limited  in  its  means  cannot  be  regarded  as  altogether 
unfortunate,  however.  For  this  very  thing  has 
caused  the  institution  to  offer,  as  its  most  important 
attraction,  exceeding  excellence  of  instruction  and 
the  best  possible  training  for  the  personal  character 
of  the  student.  In  its  situation,  too,  the  college 
has  many  advantages;  its  elevation  commands  a 
view  of  the  surrounding  country  for  many  miles, 
and  on  its  campus  are  ample  accommodations  for 


176  The  College  Girl  of  America 

the  tennis-courts  and  the  basket-ball  fields  so  neces- 
sary to  the  outdoor  life  of  girl  students. 

As  would  be  expected,  Elmira  has  stood  all 
through  its  history  for  the  belief  that  no  intellectual 
culture  can  ever  compensate  for  the  atrophy  of 
the  religious  nature.  It  conceives  that  the  charge 
of  the  past  to  the  present  is  to  see  to  it  that  this 
college  shall  become  to  an  ever-widening  degree  the 
nursery  of  strong,  free,  and  gentle  spirits  able  to 
shape  the  future,  and  to  face  life  with  courage  and 
joy.  Students  are  expected  to  attend  the  chapel 
service  held  each  morning  at  nine  o'clock,  as  well  as 
to  be  regular  at  some  church  on  Sunday.  The 
college  course  offers  systematic  instruction  in  biblical 
literature  and  Christian  sociology.  The  charges  at 
this  college,  it  may  be  said  in  passing,  are  very 
reasonable,  it  being  quite  possible  for  a  girl  to  live 
here  at  an  expense  of  only  a  Httle  over  three  hundred 
dollars  a  year,  including  tuition.  There  are  numer- 
ous scholarship  helps,  also,  for  the  worthy. 

Elmira  College  is  not  so  serious,  however,  nor 
so  inordinately  devoted  to  thoughts  of  possible  en- 
dowment and  certain  deserts,  that  its  students  neglect 
to  have  a  good  time.  If  one  may  judge  from  the 
appearance  of  the  girls  themselves,  and  from  their 
life  as  reflected  in  that  clever  little  college  magazine, 
the  Sihylj  or  that  very  impressive  annual,  the  Iris, 


Elmira  College  177 

there  is  no  more  delightful  social  life  an3rwhere. 
Not  because  it  is  poetry  (for  it  isn't),  but  because 
it  reflects  characteristic  reverence  for  that  first  col- 
lege class,  I  reprint  from  the  current  Iris  some 
rhymes  addressed  to  the  Girls  of  Fifty-five: 

"  Your  picture  hangs  on  the  chapel  wall, 
Ringlets,  brooches,  hoopskirts  and  all 
The  finery  you  donned,  to  be 
The  first  girls  to  gain  a  man's  degree. 

«  What  fun  did  you  have  so  long  ago  ? 
Were  you  allowed  to  skate  and  row  ? 
Play  tennis,  golf,  and  basket-ball, 
Did  you  have  proms  or  dances  at  all  ? 

"  Often  we  tell  the  story  with  pride, 
How  fifty  years  ago  you  tried, 
In  spite  of  scoffs  and  jeers,  to  be 
Sharers  with  men  of  that  prized  A.  R 

"  Half  a  century  parts  us  from  you, 
Yet  your  victory  helps  us,  too ; 
So  here's  to  the  girl  of  fifty-five. 
Who  first  showed  us  how  to  work  and  strive." 

That  Elmira  girls  have  not  forgotten  how  to 
"  work  and  strive  "  is  shown  by  a  recent  editorial 
in  the  Sibyl.  At  the  beginning  of  the  college  year, 
this  explains,  one  of  the  problems  which  confronted 
the  Editorial  Board  was  that  which  has  caused 
much  thought  in  other  colleges,  i.  e,,  the  best  way 


178  The  College  Girl  of  America 

to  obtain  material  from  the  students,  and  of  ascer- 
taining who  can  write.  To  do  this  a  seemingly- 
simple  plan  was  adopted,  but  one  which  was  so  suc- 
cessful that  it  might  be  of  interest  and  perhaps  of 
use  to  other  Boards  who  have  felt  the  same  need. 
At  the  issue  of  the  first  Sibyl,  the  announcement 
was  made  that  a  prize  would  be  given  to  the  class 
which  submitted  the  greatest  number  of  acceptable 
articles  in  a  given  time.  No  restrictions  were  placed 
on  the  nature  of  the  material,  whether  essay,  story, 
or  poetry,  this  being  left  to  the  student.  The  prize 
was  this :  That  the  Sibyl  Board  would  entertain 
the  successful  class.  Among  the  students  this  an- 
nouncement caused  a  ripple  of  excitement,  "  which 
ripple  spread  until  it  became  a  great  wave."  At 
first  the  senior  class  held  the  front  place,  then  the 
freshmen  came  up  and  passed  the  seniors.  Where- 
upon the  sophomores  renewed  their  efforts,  and  for 
a  time  seemed  certain  of  success.  But  the  freshmen 
could  not  let  the  victory  slip  thus  away,  and  one 
night  "  while  their  companions  slept,"  several  of  the 
literary  among  them  gathered  in  secret,  and,  having 
obtained  permission  to  keep  the  light  on,  wrote  far 
into  the  night  for  the  Sibyl  and  the  honour  of  the 
class.    Of  course  these  gallant  freshmen  won. 

The  round  of  festivals  at  Elmira  is  a  thoroughly 
delightful    one.      Early    in    November   comes    the 


Elmira  College  179 

formal  opening  of  the  prettily  furnished  senior 
parlours,  which,  during  the  academic  year  now  just 
closing,  were  made  especially  attractive  by  reason 
of  some  valuable  and  very  beautiful  china  and  linen, 
sent  to  Elmira  by  Mrs.  Lowder  of  Japan.  A  tea 
is  given  this  "  first  night "  for  the  "  sister  classes," 
followed  in  the  evening  by  a  reading.  Last  year 
Stephen  Phillips's  "  Herod "  furnished  the  enter- 
tainment. Then  comes  Thanksgiving  Day,  with 
the  tables  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  decorated 
with  evergreens,  and  having  for  a  centrepiece  a 
large  pile  of  pumpkins,  beets,  squashes,  and  ears 
of  corn.  After  the  typical  Thanksgiving  dinner  is 
eaten,  all  adjourn  to  the  college  parlours,  where 
coffee  is  served. 

The  Junior  Prom  is  one  of  the  most  delightful 
of  Elmira  affairs.  The  decorations  last  year  on  this 
occasion  were  all  Japanese,  red,  the  class  colour, 
being  most  prominent.  The  pillars  were  wound  in 
red,  and  over  the  organ  was  hung  a  large  red  ban- 
ner, upon  which  were  the  class  numerals  "  1905." 
Japanese  lanterns  were  over  all  the  lights,  and  in 
the  centre  of  the  ceiling  was  a  huge  Japanese  um- 
brella. Another  delightful  function  of  last  year 
for  the  juniors  was  that  of  Friday,  March  i8th. 
On  this  occasion,  too,  red  was  everywhere,  great 
bunches  of  American  beauty  roses  making  the  air 


i8o  The  College  Girl  of  America 

sweet  with  their  fragrance.  The  tables  for  this 
banquet  formed  a  hollow  square,  whose  centre  was 
filled  with  palms.  At  every  place  lay  a  red  rose, 
the  name  cards  themselves  being  hand-painted  red 
roses.  The  favours  were  red  leather  card-cases, 
with  silver  initials,  in  which  were  the  toast  and 
menu  cards.  During  the  evening  an  orchestra 
played  constantly,  making  the  time  pass  so  quickly 
that  when  the  punch  was  brought  in  for  the  toast- 
mistress,  it  seemed  as  if  the  feast  had  just  begun 
instead  of  being  nearly  over.  Each  toast  had  a 
flower  for  its  title,  and  in  this  way  a  very  charm- 
ing wreath  was  woven.  Many  of  the  speeches  were, 
of  course,  facetious,  but  in  one  of  them,  made  by  a 
member  of  the  faculty,  the  key-note  of  the  evening 
was  struck  with  marked  nobility.  What  she  said 
is  so  much  to  the  point  that  it  is  here  repeated: 
"  This  college,  though  small  and  unpretentious,  has 
had  the  reputation  of  sending  its  graduates  out 
equipped  with  a  modest,  but  thorough,  education. 
And  I  use  this  word  education  not  in  its  restricted 
sense  of  erudition,  but  in  its  root-meaning,  pre- 
served still  in  French,  good  upbringing  —  good 
breeding.  George  Eliot,  in  speaking  of  one  of  her 
characters,  says :  *  She  had  the  essential  attributes 
of  a  lady  —  high  veracity,  delicate  honour  in  her 
dealings,  deference  to  others,  and  refined  personal 


Elmira  College  i8i 

habits.'  These  are  the  qualities  possessed  by  the 
flower  of  ladyhood  —  the  flower  which  is  indigenous 
to  Elmira  College." 

The  culture  that  comes  from  dramatic  perform- 
ances is  by  no  means  neglected  at  Elmira.  The  Fra- 
ternity of  Thespis,  an  association  for  the  study  and 
presentation  of  classic  dramatic  literature,  wel- 
comes to  its  numbers  all  girls  who,  besides  possess- 
ing dramatic  ability,  have  high  standing  in  their 
class.  At  the  Commencement  season  of  1903,  these 
maidens  gave  their  first  out-of-door  play,  presenting 
"  As  You  Like  It  "  on  the  Elmira  campus.  A  band 
stationed  on  the  sloj>e  just  above  the  lake  rendered 
music  between  the  acts,  and,  what  with  the  lights, 
the  quaint  Shakespearian  costumes,  and  the  moon 
shining  through  the  trees,  the  scene  was  one  long 
to  be  remembered.  The  acting  was  especially  well 
done,  the  characters  being  interpreted  with  no  little 
understanding.  The  groups  of  old  trees,  too,  made 
a  very  realistic  forest  of  Arden,  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  banished  duke  and  his  lords  and  for  the 
posting  of  Orlando's  love-letters. 

In  the  fun  of  a  May-day  fete,  Elmira  likewise 
shares.  This  year  the  campus  was  thronged  for  the 
lovely  festival  with  students  and  interested  specta- 
tors. Just  south  of  the  lake  stood  the  May-pole, 
with  its  yellow  streamers.     A  little  distance  off, 


i82  The  College  Girl  of  America 

draped  in  white,  was  the  beauteous  throne  of  the 
May  Queen.  At  the  appointed  time,  last  year's 
Queen  of  the  May,  preceded  by  five  heralds,  took  her 
place  on  the  throne.  Shortly  afterward,  the  fresh- 
man class  came  marching  down  the  campus  hill, 
escorting  the  new  May  Queen,  and  singing  the 
college  song.  When  the  new  queen  reached  the 
throne,  she  was  crowned  by  retiring  royalty  with 
a  chaplet  of  daisies.  Then  the  class  went  through 
two  dances,  the  May-pole  dance,  and  another  flower 
dance,  in  which  the  girls  were  dressed  to  represent 
the  four  class  flowers,  the  chrysanthemum,  the  red 
rose,  the  daisy,  and  the  yellow  rose.  A  very  pretty 
picture  all  this  made,  as  the  bright  colours  in  the 
costumes  stood  out  in  striking  contrast  against  the 
green  background  of  the  campus.  At  six  o'clock 
supper  was  served  on  the  lawn  to  the  students  and 
their  friends,  after  which  the  day's  festivities  closed 
with  a  dance. 


WELLS    COLLEGE 

"  Standing  there  alone,  I  thought  I  would  rather 
be  Girard  as  he  was  thus  represented  than  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  or  the  ruler  of  any 
of  the  great  nations  of  the  world.  It  was  then  and 
there  that  I  resolved  that  if  ever  I  had  the  ability 
I  would  go  and  do  likewise.  Through  all  the  long 
years  since  that  resolution  was  made,  it  has  never 
been  absent  from  my  mind.  Forty  years,  with  the 
experience  they  have  ripened,  have  served  to 
strengthen  rather  than  weaken  my  firm  resolve. 
What  you  see  here  in  this  beginning,  this  nucleus 
of  the  great  work  which  I  have  upon  my  mind,  is  a 
commencement  only.  If  my  life  is  spared,  I  hope  to 
see  it  grow  and  become  one  of  the  first  institutions 
in  the  land." 

In  these  words  Henry  Wells,  at  the  age  of  seventy, 
revealed  to  the  students  of  the  institution  which 
bears  his  name  the  high  ambition  which  came  to 
him  while  still  a  young  man,  not  yet  fully  launched 
upon  his  business  career,  as  he  gazed  for  the  first 
time  upon  the  buildings  of  Girard  College,  Phila- 

183 


184  The  College  Girl  of  America 

delphia,  then  in  process  of  construction.  The  form 
into  which  this  ambition  had  finally  crystallized, 
when,  after  many  years  of  patient  toil  and  waiting, 
he  consecrated  so  much  of  his  wealth  to  the  cause  of 
the  higher  education  of  women,  he  makes  known 
in  the  address  which  he  delivered  on  the  first  an- 
niversary of  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone : 

"It  is  the  fervent  wish  of  the  founder  that  this 
college  may  always  be  conducted  on  truly  Chris- 
tian principles,  and  that  its  pupils  may  always  be  sur- 
rounded by  an  atmosphere  of  Christian  influences. 
Highly  appreciating  the  value  of  secular  education, 
but  not  forgetful  of  its  dangers,  when  divorced  from 
religious  training,  it  is  his  heartfelt  desire  that  in 
this  institution  the  two  shall  ever  be  so  thoroughly 
combined  that,  through  their  mutual  and  coopera- 
tive influence,  the  young  ladies  who  shall  here  spend 
their  school  life  shall  become  not  only  intelligent  and 
cultivated,  but  truly  Christian,  women.  The  ideal 
present  to  his  mind  is  of  a  home,  in  which,  sur- 
rounded by  appliances  and  advantages  beyond  the 
reach  of  separate  families,  however  wealthy,  young 
ladies  may  assemble  to  receive  that  education  which 
shall  qualify  them  to  fulfil  their  duties  as  women, 
daughters,  wives,  or  mothers.  Further,  I  desire  to 
furnish  the  highest  grade  of  education  to  women,  by 
means  of  advantages  equal  in  every  particular  to 


Wells  College  185 

those  which  are  now  afforded  to  young  men  in  the 
most  advanced  colleges  of  the  land."  When  we  take 
into  consideration  that  Wells,  though  founded  so 
long  ago,  is,  and  has  been  from  the  start,  one  of  the 
few  institutions  exclusively  for  women  to  take  first 
rank  educationally,  we  may  well  grant  Henry  Wells, 
self-made  man  though  he  was,  to  be  distinctly  a 
pioneer  in  educational  matters. 

The  story  of  this  man's  life  is  the  old  familiar  one 
of  fidelity  to  business  trust,  of  capacity  and  willing- 
ness to  work,  of  personal  ability  and  worth.  Bom 
at  Thetford,  Vermont,  December  12,  1805,  ^^ 
moved,  in  18 14,  to  western  New  York  with  his 
father,  a  pioneer  missionary  in  that  sparsely  set- 
tled region.  The  head  of  the  house  possessed  a 
large  family,  and,  having  but  a  small  income,  was 
able  to  provide  for  his  sons  only  till  they  had  reached 
the  age  when  they  could  care  for  themselves.  So 
when  young  Henry  was  sixteen  he  was  apprenticed 
to  the  tanning  and  shoemaking  trade.  But  for 
some  reason  he  did  not  complete  the  stipulated  term 
of  service,  and  it  was  in  the  direction  of  the  express 
enterprises  with  which  his  name  was  afterward  to 
be  coupled  that  the  young  man  soon  turned  his  at- 
tention. Wealth  and  the  highest  kind  of  success 
came  to  him  through  the  great  business  which  he 
built  up,  but  he  early  saw  the  dangers  which  con- 


i86  The  College  Girl  of  America 

stantly  threaten  a  purely  material  civilization,  and 
the  clear  conviction  that  the  family  is  the  real  source 
of  strength  and  power  in  the  social  structure  took 
possession  of  his  soul.  When  at  last  he  v^as  able  to 
put  into  execution  his  lifelong  ambition,  he  turned 
very  naturally,  therefore,  to  the  work  of  founding 
a  woman's  college. 

Ground  was  broken  for  the  first  building  in  April, 
1866,  and  the  comer-stone  was  laid  July  19th  of 
the  same  year.  The  college  was  originally  incor- 
porated under  the  title  "  Wells  Seminary  for  the 
Higher  Education  of  Young  Women,"  but  it  was 
given  at  the  very  first  full  authority  to  "  grant  and 
confer  such  Honours,  Degrees,  and  Diplomas  as  are 
granted  by  any  University,  College,  or  Seminary 
of  Learning  in  the  United  States."  The  word  col- 
lege was  substituted  for  seminary  in  1870,  in  re- 
sponse to  the  petition  of  the  trustees  to  the  regents 
of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  as 
more  in  accord  with  the  powers  conveyed  by  the 
charter,  and  better  expressing  the  plans  and  pur- 
pose of  the  founder.  Thus  Wells  has  every  claim 
to  be  considered  the  second  oldest  college  exclu- 
sively for  women  in  the  United  States.  (Vassar 
was  founded  in  1865,  and,  though  Mt.  Holyoke  was 
established  as  a  seminary  in  1837,  it  did  not  assume 
collegiate  character  till  1888.) 


Wells  College  187 

Because  of  its  location  in  Aurora,  New  York,  a 
beautiful  and  healthful  village  on  the  east  shore 
of  Cayuga  Lake,  the  college  has  always  had  the 
advantage  of  delightful  surroundings  and  favour- 
able health  conditions.  All  the  students  spend  a 
good  deal  of  time  on  the  water,  for  there  are  large 
club  boats,  as  well  as  smaller  skiffs.  Quiet  woods 
offer  the  temptation  to  wander  for  pure  enjoyment 
through  the  ravines  with  their  waterfalls,  flowers, 
and  ferns.  Each  student  is  expected  to  spend  at 
least  one  hour  daily  in  the  open  air,  and  there  has 
ever  been  the  greatest  possible  encouragement  of 
outdoor  sports.  Tennis-courts,  a  basket-ball  field, 
the  golf-links,  and  fine  roads  for  driving  are  ready 
for  enjoyment.  Inasmuch  as  the  lake  serves  to 
temper  the  severity  of  the  winter  season  —  thus 
prolonging  opportunity  for  outdoor  recreation  — 
and  to  render  the  spring  days  cool  and  bracing, 
Aurora  enjoys  remarkable  exemption  from  all  in- 
fluences injurious  to  health. 

The  college  aims  to  give  a  thorough  academic 
training  to  all  its  students,  at  the  same  time  main- 
taining and  preserving,  as  its  founder  desired,  the 
essential  characteristics  and  ideals  of  a  refined  home. 
Chapel  services  are  held  each  morning  during  term- 
time,  and  regular  attendance  here,  as  well  as  in  one 


i88  The  College  Girl  of  America 

of  the  churches  of  the  village  on  Sunday,  is  ex- 
pected. 

The  system  of  self-government  is  in  force  at  the 
college.  This  is  based  upon  a  series  of  simple  rules, 
made  by  the  students  themselves  —  regulations 
which,  for  the  greatest  good  of  all,  are  observed 
by  all  resident  members  of  the  Collegiate  Associa- 
tion. 

The  founder  had  originally  planned  for  a  small 
college  —  for  seventy-five  students,  indeed,  and  the 
number  of  students  is  still  small,  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty  only,  which  makes  Wells 
the  second  smallest  (Rockford  has  eighty-one) 
as  well  as  the  second  oldest  woman's  college 
of  the  first  rank.  But  the  real  strength  and 
real  life  of  any  college  lie  not  so  much  in  the 
number  of  its  students  as  in  their  character  and 
devotion.  Mrs.  Grover  Cleveland  well  represents  the 
former.  As  for  the  latter  —  when  on  August  9, 
1888,  the  main  building  was  burned,  —  a  calamity 
almost  irreparable,  as  it  seemed,  —  Wells  appeared 
to  better  advantage  than  at  any  time  in  its  history. 
Scarcely  any  of  the  old  students  failed  to  return 
at  the  opening  of  the  term  in  September.  Then, 
for  two  years,  the  zeal  of  teachers,  students,  and 
friends  carried  the  college  triumphantly  through  the 
most  critical  period  of  its  existence,  to  place  it  at  the 


Wells  College  189 

end  of  this  time  of  stress  on  firmer,  more  gen- 
erous foundations  than  it  had  ever  had  before.  The 
village  hotel  was  chartered  by  the  trustees  and  re- 
christened  the  "  Wayside  Inn "  by  the  students. 
The  homestead  of  Colonel  Morgan,  one  of  the  col- 
lege's firmest  friends,  was  brought  into  service  as  the 
"  Tabard  Inn,"  the  palatial  residence  of  Mrs.  Henry 
Morgan  was  occupied  for  the  time  as  the  "  Annex," 
and  Morgan  Hall  was  made  to  answer  most  of  the 
needs  of  instruction.  From  the  blow  of  this  fire 
Wells  has  risen  upward  by  leaps  and  bounds  in  all 
phases  of  its  life  except  that  of  student  body  ex- 
pansion. 

There  are  always  compensations,  however,  in  a 
small  college  for  women.  And  of  these  Wells  has 
her  very  good  share.  The  social  life  is  delightful 
in  its  refinement  and  simplicity.  Each  season  brings 
its  own  amusements.  At  Hallowe'en  there  is  a 
straw-ride  and  games;  on  Washington's  Birthday 
an  old-time  reception.  At  the  close  of  the  semi- 
annual examinations  in  January  there  is  the  re- 
laxation-party, when  "  the  mighty  minds  unbend 
after  the  labour  and  strain  of  examinations,  and 
a  great  effort  is  made  to  be  foolish  rather  than 
wise,  to  give  up  the  evening  entirely  to  fun,  the 
more  nonsensical  the  better."  As  a  natural  conse- 
quence of  its  situation,  most  amusements  are  some- 


190  The  College  Girl  of  America 

thing  which  can  be  done  out  in  the  woods,  or  on 
the  lake.  "  There  is  Casa  FeHce,"  a  former  student^ 
writes  enthusiastically,  "  a  lovely  nook  in  the  woods, 
with  a  rustic  fireplace,  which  is  a  favourite  spot 
for  teas,  and  where  Ruskin  readings  seem  par- 
ticularly appropriate.  There  is  Rocky  Point,  where 
larger  parties  assemble  for  impromptu  picnics,  com- 
ing by  boat  or  wagon,  or  on  foot,  each  mode  of 
transportation  appearing  to  its  devotees  so  much 
more  delightful  than  any  other,  that  all  are  unself- 
ishly anxious  not  to  deprive  others  of  the  places  that 
seem  especially  desirable,  until  on  one  occasion 
scarcely  an  individual  got  the  place  she  wished.  In 
comparing  notes  afterward  it  was  found  that  those 
who  wished  to  walk  were  obliged  to  ride  or  row, 
those  who  were  afraid  of  the  water  had  to  come 
in  the  boats,  and  those  who  were  tired  and  wanted 
to  ride  were  compelled,  by  the  kindness  and  polite- 
ness of  others,  to  walk.  That  was  so  absurd  that 
we  could  only  laugh,  but  we  do  not  often  have  such 
mishaps  to  complain  of.  A  desire  to  add  to  the  ♦ 
adornments  of  the  college  campus,  and  also  to  spend 
out-of-doors  one  of  the  golden  days  of  Indian 
summer,  led  us  once  to  the  performance  of  a  mask, 
'  Homage  to  Nature,'  to  which  the  only  objection 
was  that,  as  all  the  students  took  part,  there  were 

■  A.  A.  Wood,  in  the  Century  Magazine. 


Wells  College  191 

few  to  see  what  a  pretty  sight  it  was.  The  students 
wore  the  academic  gown,  each  class  of  its  own 
colour;  and  each  had  special  trees  or  shrubs  to 
plant  in  chosen  spots  on  the  campus,  and  crocuses 
to  put  everywhere  in  the  green  grass.  In  this  par- 
ticular mask  the  Nymph  of  Castalia,  Aurora,  the 
Goddess  Maia,  and  Diana  with  her  nymphs  and 
dryads  dispute  as  to  which  has  the  best  right  to 
lead  the  students  to  communion  with  nature.  These 
mortals  render  homage  to  the  disputants  in  turn, 
with  singing,  dancing,  and  dialogue  —  and  all  join 
in  the  planting.  As  the  groups  moved  from  place 
to  place  that  day  on  our  stately  campus,  the  effect 
of  the  red,  wfiite,  purple,  and  yellow  gowns,  some- 
times scattered,  sometimes  blended,  was  beautiful. 
To  be  sure,  the  weather  made  a  slight  mistake,  and, 
instead  of  soft  Indian  summer,  it  was  bleak  Novem- 
ber, so  that  under  those  light  floating  gowns  there 
had  to  be  cloaks  and  furs,  and  the  songstresses  had 
fears  for  their  throats;  but  there  were  good  fires 
and  hot  coffee  indoors  afterward,  and  no  harm  was 
done,  and  ever  since  Nature's  Mask  has  been  a 
delight  to  read  of  and  to  look  back  upon." 

A  very  important  feature  of  the  academic  life  at 
Wells  is  the  fine  series  of  concerts  given  each  year 
by  the  members  of  the  Faculty  of  Music,  with  the 
assistance  of  artists  of  repute  from  abroad.    Special 


192  The  College  Girl  of  America 

features  of  these  concerts  are  the  performance  of 
such  works  in  chamber  music  as  trios,  quartettes, 
and  quintettes  of  the  great  masters.  Lectures  on 
musical  subjects  and  concerts  by  artists  of  renown 
are  of  frequent  occurrence.  During  the  more  recent 
years  the  little  college  on  Cayuga  Lake  has  been 
visited  by  De  Pachmann,  Adele  Aus  der  Ohe,  Helen 
Hopkirk,  Madame  Fanny  Bloomfield  Zeisler,  the 
New  York  Philharmonic  Club,  the  Beethoven  String 
Quartette,  E.  A.  MacDowell,  Arthur  Foote,  Lillian 
Blauvelt,  and  many  other  distinguished  musicians. 
The  Wells  Philharmonic  Club  is  in  charge  of  these 
recitals  and  concerts. 

Of  other  clubs  there  are  several,  perhaps  the  most 
important  being  the  Phoenix  Literarium  Societas, 
which  holds  a  charter  from  the  State  of  New  York 
and  is  made  up  of  members  chosen  for  scholarship 
and  literary  ability.  The  work  of  this  society  is 
of  a  practical  character,  and  aims  to  create  or  pro- 
mote interest  in  good  literature  or  in  literary 
style  and  expression.  Wells  has  two  college  settle- 
ment chapters,  through  which  knowledge  is  spread 
and  interest  deepened  in  methods  of  increasing  the 
spirit  of  universal  brotherhood  and  of  mutual  obli- 
gation. A  branch  of  the  Young  Woman's  Christian 
Association  likewise  does  good  work. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Wells  College  is  very 


Wells  College  193 

faithfully  executing  the  trust  committed  to  it  by 
its  founder,  in  that  it  is  feminine  in  every  way. 
Such  a  thing  as  a  college  yell  has  never  been  heard 
within  its  walls'.  It  cultivates  instead  serene  self- 
poise  and  all  those  virtues  and  qualities  which  may 
be  held  to  be  inseparable  from  the  highest  intellec- 
tual womanhood. 


ROCKFORD  COLLEGE 

On  a  high  bluff  above  Rock  River,  ninety  miles 
northwest  of  Chicago,  in  the  midst  of  a  wooded 
campus  of  nine  or  ten  acres,  stands  Rockford  Col- 
lege, almost  the  smallest,  yet  in  many  ways  the 
most  interesting,  of  the  women's  colleges  of  Amer- 
ica. For  the  story  of  Rockford  College  is  the  story 
of  our  Middle  West.  The  founding  of  the  school 
was  an  expression  of  the  enthusiasm  for  the  higher 
education  of  both  men  and  women,  and  of  the  ar- 
dour for  missionary  work  which  characterized  the 
people  of  this  country  during  the  second  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Amherst  College  and 
Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary  in  the  East  had  its  counter- 
part in  Beloit  College  and  Rockford  Seminary  in 
the  Northwest.  For  it  was  in  the  convention  of 
1844  that  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian 
churches  of  Wisconsin  and  Illinois  passed  the  fol- 
lowing resolution :  that  "  The  exigencies  of  Wis- 
consin and  northern  Illinois  require  that  those  sec- 
tions should  unite  in  establishing  a  college  and  a 
female  seminary  of  the  highest  order,  the  one  in 


A    ROCKFORD    GIRL. 


Rockford  College  195 

Wisconsin  near  to  Illinois,  and  the  other  in  Illinois 
near  to  Wisconsin."  As  a  result  of  this  determina- 
tion, Beloit  was  selected  as  the  location  of  tne  col- 
lege, and,  not  long  afterward,  Rockford  was  fixed 
upon  as  the  site  of  the  seminary,  the  citizens  of  the 
place  pledging  suitable  grounds  for  the  school  and 
contributing  thirty-five  hundred  dollars  toward  the 
expense  of  building. 

The  seminary  type  of  girls'  school  stood  at  that 
time  for  the  best  that  was  known  in  women's  edu- 
cation. It  was,  therefore,  in  the  name  of  a  semi- 
nary that  a  charter  was  granted  to  the  trustees 
of  Rockford,  though  from  the  first  the  institution 
had  full  collegiate  powers.  Owing,  however,  to 
such  business  reverses  as  often  overtake  a  frontier 
town,  the  pledges  that  had  been  so  generously  made 
could  not  at  once  be  met,  and  it  was  not  until  July 
II,  1849,  th^t  there  could  be  even  a  beginning 
toward  opening  the  school.  On  that  day  Miss  Anna 
P.  Sill  organized  the  preparatory  establishment  that 
became  the  nucleus  of  Rockford  Seminary. 

Miss  Sill,  who  had  been  preceptress  of  the 
woman's  department  in  Gary  Collegiate  Institute 
of  Oakfield,  western  New  York,  had  come  to  Rock- 
ford on  the  invitation  of  the  Congregational  pastor 
there.  She  was  a  young  woman  of  splendid  phy- 
sique, and  of  distinguished  beauty,  and  had  been 


196  The  College  Girl  of  America 

possessed  by  an  earnest  desire  to  become  a  foreign 
missionary.  Finding  this  impracticable  for  vari- 
ous reasons,  she  welcomed  the  call  to  the  West  as 
to  a  destitute  field  where  she  was  vitally  needed. 

The  fact  that  this  beautiful  young  woman  had 
come  hundreds  of  miles  to  do  good  undoubtedly  had 
its  effect  upon  her  pupils.  Certainly  they  went  to 
work  with  a  will,  though  discouragements  were  still 
manifold.  "  The  seats,"  one  of  the  members  of  that 
first  class  has  written,  "  were  low  and  uncouth 
affairs,  and  the  sun  came  in  glaringly  from  the  win- 
dows, causing  much  complaint.  But  the  teacher  had 
an  iron  will.  She  opened  a  modest  boarding-house, 
and,  with  the  funds  thus  gained,  improved  the  school- 
room, bought  the  books  needed,  placed  curtains  on 
the  windows,  and  prevailed  upon  the  scholars  to 
supply  desks."  The  success  of  the  school  was  so 
immediate^  and  its  growth  so  marked,  that  larger 
accommodations  were  soon  required.  Whereupon 
the  citizens  of  Rockford  rose  superior  to  all  their 
financial  discouragements  and  subscribed  five  thou- 
sand dollars  for  buildings.  The  women  of  Rock- 
ford  raised  one  thousand  dollars  more,  and  with  this 
the  college  campus  was  purchased. 

The  first  class,  numbering  fifteen,  began  work  in 
1 85 1.  "  Even  after  the  new  seminary  building  was 
Opened,"   Mrs.   Ainsworth,   principal  of   Rockford 


Rockford  College  197 

from  1 89 1  to  1896,  has  written,  "  the  discomforts 
of  living,  which,  we  are  told,  were  accepted  with 
philosophical  cheerfulness  for  the  most  part,  seem 
quite  appalling  to  us  now.  The  rooms  were  un- 
carpeted,  though  the  catalogues  advised  that  room- 
mates might  club  together  and  carpet  them  if  they 
chose.  The  heating  was  ostensibly  done  by  tiny 
wood  stoves,  the  capacity  of  which  for  blowing  hot 
and  cold  was  phenomenal.  No  fuel  could  be  added 
after  eight  o'clock  —  a  wise  rule  caused  by  dread 
of  conflagrations.  Four  girls  and  a  teacher  were 
sometimes  in  a  room  now  occupied  by  one  person. 
The  students  performed  the  work  of  the  house. 
Of  necessity  the  table  was  not  liberal." 

All  these  privations  were,  however,  counted  as 
nothing  if  by  any  means  the  ideal  toward  which  the 
students  were  striving,  with  such  splendid  en- 
thusiasm, and  through  such  agony  of  endeavour, 
could  be  attained.  No  sacrifice  was  regarded  as  too 
costly  for  this  end,  either  on  the  part  of  the  citizens 
of  Rockford,  or  on  the  part  of  Miss  Sill  and  her 
coworkers.  Of  pupils  certainly  there  was  no  lack. 
After  the  structure  now  known  as  Middle  Hall  had 
been  put  up,  a  hundred  applicants  were  refused  for 
lack  of  room. 

But  there  could  be  no  new  building  just  then,  for 
the  resources  of  Rockford  seemed  exhausted,  and 


198  The  College  Girl  of  America 

Miss  Sill's  health  had  begun  to  give  way.  We  are 
told  that  she  went  to  the  East  in  December,  1853, 
for  the  double  purpose  of  recruiting  her  strength 
and  obtaining  funds.  In  the  latter  object  she  was 
admirably  successful,  for  she  returned  with  about 
five  thousand  dollars,  a  large  sum  for  those  days, 
and  with  this  the  foundation  of  another  building 
was  laid,  money  being  borrowed  to  complete  the 
work.  Again,  largely  through  Miss  Sill's  personal 
efforts,  ten  thousand  dollars  was  raised  in  the  West. 
The  teachers,  too,  pledged  one  thousand  dollars  out 
of  their  own  meagre  salaries,  and  New  England 
once  more  came  to  the  rescue.  Thus  it  was  that  the 
erection  of  Middle  Hall  in  1852  was  followed  in  two 
years  by  the  building  of  Linden  Hall.  In  1866 
Chapel  Hall  went  up.  The  entire  amount  ex- 
pended for  these  earlier  buildings,  with  their  equip- 
ment, was  about  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  of 
which  Rockford  and  its  immediate  vicinity  gave 
two-thirds.  Then,  in  the  winter  of  1886,  Sill  Hall 
was  completed  with  funds  almost  entirely  provided 
by  the  citizens  of  Rockford.  This  building  has  a 
gymnasium  on  its  second  floor,  and  music-rooms  on 
the  first  floor. 

The  number  of  edifices  erected  during  Miss  Sill's 
lifetime  has  now  been  told.  But,  for  the  sake  of 
clearness  and  completeness  in  this  connection,  it  is 


Rockford  College  199 

to  be  noted  that  in  the  fall  of  1892  Adams  Hall, 
a  fine  modern  building,  costing  about  thirty-five 
thousand  dollars,  and  having  accommodations  for 
laboratories  and  recitation-rooms,  and  in  1891 
Memorial  Hall,  a  students'  residence,  were  added  to 
the  college  equipment.  ''  Their  total  cost,"  writes 
Mrs.  Ainsworth,  *'  has  not  been  great,  reckoned  by 
recent  expenditures  for  educational  uses,  yet,  as  re- 
gards the  proportion  of  the  gifts  to  the  means  of 
the  givers,  the  sums  have  been  greater  than  are 
often  bestowed  upon  a  school."  Again  and  again, 
in  reading  the  story  and  observing  the  life  of  Rock- 
ford  College,  one  is  reminded  of  the  widow's  mite 
parable. 

Miss  Sill,  the  first  principal  of  the  seminary,  con- 
tinued actively  in  this  office  until  the  summer  of 
1884,  when  she  resigned;  but,  as  principal  emerita, 
she  retained  her  connection  with  the  institution  until 
1889.  Then  she  died  under  the  roof  that  her  own 
strength  and  devotion  had  reared. 

Miss  Jane  Addams,  of  Hull  House,  Chicago,  who 
was  graduated  from  Rockford  College  in  188 1,  and 
stands  to-day,  perhaps,  as  the  institution's  most 
imposing  representative,  wrote  of  Miss  Sill  at  the 
time  of  her  death :  "  From  the  very  first  we  owe 
to  her  whom  we  mourn  to-day  with  such  heavy 
hearts  the  highest  grace  any  institution  can  possess. 


200  The  College  Girl  of  America 

Miss  Sill  gave  our  college  that  strong  religious 
tone  which  it  has  always  retained.  She  came  to 
Illinois  in  an  unselfish  spirit  —  not  to  build  up  a 
large  school,  not  to  make  an  intellectual  centre,  but 
to  train  the  young  women  of  a  new  country  for 
Christian  usefulness.  Unaffectedly  and  thoroughly 
she  made  that  her  aim. 

"  The  spiritual  so  easily  speaks  over  all  other 
voices  that  it  arrests  us  at  once.  We  travel  the 
world  over  to  find  the  spots  associated  with  the 
humble  soul,  singly  striving  to  unite  itself  with  the 
Unseen.  Salisbury  Plain,  with  magnificent  Stone- 
henge,  fails  to  stir  us  as  does  the  tiny  church  on 
the  edge  of  it,  on  whose  porch  George  Herbert 
mused  and  prayed.  So  we  are  bound  by  the  ten- 
derest  ties  to  perpetuate  this  primitive  spiritual 
purpose  —  Miss  Sill's  life-motive.  It  will  be  easy 
to  do  this  —  we  cannot  do  otherwise;  it  is  asso- 
ciated with  this  spot  by  her  long  life,  and  made 
bright  by  her  gentle  death.  Why  did  Thackeray 
put  dear  old  Colonel  Newcombe  into  the  Charter 
House  School  to  die,  but  that  he  wished  to  give 
to  his  Alma  Mater  the  most  exquisite  finish,  the 
most  consummate  grace  his  genius  could  devise  — 
to  associate  with  it  for  ever  the  passing  from  earth 
of  a  gentle,  unselfish  spirit  whose  work  was  fin- 
ished.    Providence  has  granted  us  this  grace,  and 


Rockford  College  201 

whatever  good  fortune  the  future  may  hold  for  us, 
nothing  can  be  finer  than  that  we  have  already." 

To  the  seminary  curriculum  was  added,  in  1882, 
a  collegiate  course  of  study,  and  from  that  time 
on  all  students  who  had  completed  the  requisite 
amount  of  work  received  the  degree  of  A.  B.  But 
in  June,  189 1,  the  board  of  trustees  decided  to  dis- 
continue the  seminary  course,  and  the  following 
year  the  name  of  the  institution  was  legally  changed 
from  Rockford  Seminary  to  Rockford  College. 
Beginning  with  the  class  of  1896,  all  graduates  of 
Rockford  have  been  college  graduates. 

All  through  its  history,  Rockford  College  has  had 
the  benefit  of  the  trustee  service  of  broad-minded 
men  and  women.  The  present  board  worthily  rep- 
resents a  long  line  of  illustrious  predecessors.  Rock- 
ford has  sent  out  hundreds  of  noble  graduates 
during  its  history,  and  has  touched,  for  a  longer 
or  shorter  period,  the  lives  of  thousands  of  girls 
who,  as  missionaries,  as  teachers,  as  wives  and 
mothers,  have  gone  all  over  this  land  and  to  foreign 
coimtries.  To  the  presence  of  the  college,  more- 
over, may  be  attributed  the  unusual  number  of 
cultivated  women  in  the  city  of  Rockford,  the 
marked  musical  preeminence  of  the  place,  and  its 
general  high  tone.  Under  the  present  president, 
Miss  Julia  H.  Gulliver,  Ph.  D.,  —  to  whom  I  am 


202  The  College  Girl  of  America 

indebted  for  the  material  contained  in  this  chapter, 
—  the  inspiring  influence  of  the  institution  is 
notable. 

As  to  the  present  ideals  of  the  college  —  the  end 
and  aim,  for  the  students,  of  all  the  varied  activities 
of  the  place,  is  that  they  may  have  life,  and  that 
they  may  have  it  more  abundantly.  The  college  is 
characterized  by  a  homelike  atmosphere,  and  it  is 
the  intent  to  keep  the  life  ever  normal,  simple,  and 
free  from  worry  and  friction.  "  We  believe  first 
of  all  in  a  glad  heart  and  a  quiet  mind,"  the  pres- 
ident has  said. 

The  system  of  self-government,  which  has  been 
in  operation  two  years  now,  works  increasingly 
well.  All  matters  pertaining  to  house  discipline,  to 
chapel  and  church  attendance,  are  in  the  hands  of 
the  students,  and  the  success  of  the  entire  experi- 
ment —  for  it  has  been  successful  —  is  undoubtedly 
due  to  the  high  honour  and  confidence  accorded 
by  the  girls  to  the  faculty,  who  are  regarded  as 
public  servants  ready  to  take  upon  themselves  on- 
erous duties  for  the  sake  of  helping  the  student 
body  to  preserve  and  maintain  the  freedom  that 
comes  from  self-control.  The  system  of  self-gov- 
ernment has  produced  a  truly  delightful  relationship 
between  the  faculty  and  students.  The  individuality 
of  each  student  is  carefully  studied,  and  no  effort 


Rockford  College  203 

is  spared  on  the  teachers'  part  to  develop  the  best 
of  which  each  girl  is  capable. 

Gymnastic  work  is  required,  as  is  also  out-of-door 
exercise.  Clubs  for  tennis,  fencing,  basket-ball,  and 
other  games  flourish,  though  the  greatest  care  is 
taken  that  no  girl  shall  overtax  her  health.  The 
success  of  the  College  Glee  Club,  which  includes 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  student  body,  has  been 
especially  noteworthy  during  the  |)ast  year,  and  the 
Kappa  Theta  and  Chi  Theta  Psi  societies  have 
likewise  done  much  to  make  life  at  the  college 
attractive. 

A  highly  characteristic  annual  event  at  Rockford 
College  is  the  Washington's  Birthday  party,  for 
which  the  Chi  Theta  Psi  girls  plan  every  detail,  and 
upon  the  unfailing  success  of  which  they  are  cer- 
tainly greatly  to  be  congratulated.  Like  the  maiden 
in  the  garden  of  the  old  song,  the  Rockford  College 
girl  "  in  her  petticoat  of  satin  and  her  gaily  flowered 
gown  "  is  a  vision  long  to  be  remembered.  Not  less 
stately  and  elegant  is  her  sister,  who  impersonates 
the  fine  gentleman  of  the  long  ago.  Together  they 
bring  back  the  spirit  of  Colonial  days,  and  transform 
the  Western  college,  for  a  brief  space,  at  least,  into 
a  veritable  old-time  mansion.  The  festivities  begin 
with  a  six  o'clock  dinner.  At  its  close  there  is  a 
programme  of  patriotic  speeches,  interspersed  with 


204  The  College  Girl  of  America 

the  drinking  of  toasts  in  sparkling  (?)  grapejuice, 
the  president  of  the  college  acting  as  toastmistress. 
Later  comes  a  dancing  programme  in  the  gym- 
nasium, which  has  been  simply  but  beautifully 
decorated  with  flags,  and  provides  an  appropriate 
setting  for  the  charming  colour  effects  produced  by 
the  girls'  costumes.  The  "  ball  "  is  opened  with  the 
grand  march  —  a  succession  of  intricate  figures  ex- 
ecuted with  much  dignity  and  stateliness.  At  its 
conclusion  eight  chosen  couples  dance  the  minuet. 
Their  grace  of  motion,  their  beauty  of  form,  and 
the  charm  of  their  old-fashioned  garb  make  this 
dance  a  real  delight  to  the  beholder,  a  picture  to  be 
treasured  in  memory  and  recalled  with  keenest 
pleasure  whenever  Rockford  College  is  mentioned. 

The  life  of  the  Rockford  of  to-day  is  connected 
very  closely  and  very  normally  with  the  life  of 
the  town  which  made  the  college  possible,  and  fes- 
tivals on  the  campus  are  town  celebrations  — 
almost.  For  the  senior  play  everybody  turns  out. 
Last  year's  offering  was  "  The  Tempest."  This 
charming  comedy,  presented  in  the  sunset  light  of 
a  Commencement  afternoon,  could  not  have  had  a 
more  attractive  stage-setting  than  was  furnished  by 
the  fine  old  trees  and  green  shrubbery  of  the  grounds 
just  north  of  the  terrace.  The  class  of  1903  had 
put  a  great  deal  of  time  and  painstaking  effort  into 


Rockford  College  205 

their  presentation,  and  that  their  endeavours  were 
appreciated  was  attested  by  the  interested  attention 
of  the  large  audience.  From  the  moment  that  Pros- 
pero  and  Miranda  first  came  upon  the  stage,  the 
magic  spell  of  the  text  seemed  to  cast  itself  upon 
the  onlookers,  who  followed  as  if  they  were  in 
veritable  fairyland  the  speeches  of  the  beautiful 
Ariel,  the  dance  of  the  fairies  in  the  fourth  act,  the 
stilling  of  the  tempest,  and  the  final  opening  of  the 
eyes  of  the  spellbound  and  shipwrecked  mariners. 
When  it  was  all  over,  Rockford  had  fairly  to  pinch 
itself  to  get  awake  to  real  things.  But  we  may  be 
sure  that  the  worthy  citizens  were  very  happy  as 
they  wended  their  way  homeward,  and  very  glad 
that  fifty-five  years  ago  they  established  this  girls' 
college  in  their  community. 


MILLS    COLLEGE 

What  Wellesley  and  Smith,  Vassar,  Mt.  Hol- 
yoke,  and  Bryn  Mawr  have  been  to  the  States  along 
the  Atlantic  coast,  Mills  College  in  California 
aspires  to  be  to  the  Pacific  States.  Though  its 
authorities  recognize  fully  the  immense  service 
Stanford  and  the  University  of  California  are  doing 
in  the  education  of  young  women,  they  apprehend 
also  that  there  is  a  big  place  in  their  part  of  the 
country  for  a  girls'  college  to  fill.  Coeducation, 
with  all  its  advantages,  is  not  acceptable  to  all 
parents  desiring  college  training  for  their  daughters, 
nor  does  it  supply  the  place  of  a  distinctly  woman's 
college. 

Almost  by  the  right  of  inheritance,  it  would  ap- 
pear, should  Mills  be  given  in  the  West  a  place 
similar  to  that  held  by  Mt.  Holyoke  in  the  East. 
For  the  founder  and  president  of  this  college  was 
herself  one  of  the  earliest  graduates  of  Mt.  Holyoke 
Seminary.  Susan  Tolman  Mills  was  born  at  Enos- 
burg,  Vermont,  seventy-eight  years  ago,  of  parents 
who  were  both  of  such  loyal  Massachusetts  stock 

206 


!       '_ 


Mills  College  207 

that  they  returned  to  their  native  State  when  their 
child  was  ten  years  old,  and  settled  in  Ware,  in 
order  that  she  might  have  the  benefit  of  the  good 
schools  of  that  place.  Two  years  later  Mrs.  Tolman 
died,  leaving  a  dying  request  that  her  little  girl 
should  be  educated  under  Mary  Lyon.  This  re- 
quest was  carefully  regarded,  and  in  1845  Susan 
finished  her  course  at  Mt.  Holyoke.  The  following 
year  she  returned  to  the  seminary  as  a  teacher.  Very 
soon,  however,  there  came  to  her  the  call  to  be 
the  head  of  a  home,  and  in  September,  1848,  she 
was  married  to  Rev.  Cyrus  T.  Mills,  a  missionary 
ordered  to  Ceylon.  The  young  couple  sailed  at  once 
for  their  foreign  post,  compassing  the  journey,  it  is 
interesting  to  note,  only  after  a  voyage  which  lasted 
one  hundred  and  forty-three  days. 

From  the  first  Mrs.  Mills's  work  abroad  was  of 
an  educational  nature.  She  was  associated  with  her 
husband  in  the  Batticotta  College,  Ceylon,  —  an 
institution  for  the  education  of  native  teachers  and 
preachers,  —  and  she  also  had  charge  of  several  day- 
schools  for  girls.  But,  after  six  years  of  this,  fail- 
ing health  obliged  both  her  husband  and  herself 
to  return  to  America.  And  even  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  two  years  of  rest  which  followed,  physicians 
forbade  their  going  back  to  the  foreign  field.  Ere 
long  another  congenial  door  opened  to  Doctor  Mills 


2o8  The  College  Girl  of  America 

in  the  form  of  a  call  to  the  presidency  of  Oahu 
College  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  This  he  gladly 
accepted,  and,  in  that  institution,  established  espe- 
cially for  the  education  of  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  missionaries  and  other  foreign  residents,  Mrs. 
Mills  filled  for  four  years  the  position  of  professor 
of  natural  science  and  English,  and  had  also  the 
care  of  the  boarding  department  of  about  fifty.  But 
here  again  failing  health,  impaired  by  life  and 
labours  in  India,  compelled  them  to  return  to 
America. 

Yet  they  were  not  discouraged.  ,  Indeed,  one  of 
the  first  things  that  they  did  upon  arriving  in  Cali- 
fornia in  1865  was  to  purchase  the  Benecia  Sem- 
inary of  Mary  Atkins,  and  enter  with  great  en- 
thusiasm upon  the  work  of  there  educating  young 
ladies  after  the  highest  Christian  ideals.  The  spot 
which  they  had  chosen  for  their  school  was  cer- 
tainly a  charming  one,  and  the  new  buildings  which 
they  erected  were  worthy  of  the  task  to  which  they 
earnestly  set  themselves.  A  curious  happening,  we 
are  told,  had  strengthened  their  resolution  to  push 
the  thing  forward  at  once.  They  had  been  trying 
to  decide  whether  they  would  follow  up  the  new 
educational  opportunity  or  stop  to  take  the  rest  both 
sadly  needed,  when  Mrs.  Mills  chanced  upon  these 
lines  of  a  poem  called  "  Finish  Thy  Work  " : 


Mills  College  209 

"  Finish  thy  work ;  the  time  is  short, 
The  sun  is  in  the  west ; 
The  night  is  coming  down ;  till  then 
Think  not  of  rest. 

"  Yes,  finish  all  thy  work,  then  rest ; 
Till  then,  rest  never ; 
The  rest  prepared  for  thee  by  God 
Is  rest  forever. 

"  Finish  thy  work,  then  wipe  thy  brow, 
Ungird  thee  from  the  toil ; 
Take  breath,  and  from  each  weary  limb 
Shake  o£E  the  soil. 

"  Finish  thy  work,  then  sit  thee  down 
On  some  celestial  hill, 
And  of  its  strength-reviving  air 
Take  thou  thy  fill. 

**  Finish  thy  work,  then  go  in  peace, 
Life's  battle  fought  and  won ; 
Hear  from  the  throne  the  Master's  voice, 
« Well  done !  well  done ! ' " 


Obediently  Mrs.  Mills  and  her  husband  went  on 
to  "  finish  their  work,"  devoting  to  the  noble  in- 
stitution which  is  now  Mills  College  their  entire 
fortune  and  the  strength  of  their  mature  years. 
And,  when  the  place  had  risen  to  wide  renown, 
they  deeded  the  property  to  a  board  of  trustees 
who  should  hold  it  forever  for  the  highest  Chris- 
tian (but  not  sectarian)  education  of  women. 


210  The  College  Girl  of  America 

In  all  his  plans  and  efforts  for  the  college  Doctor 
Mills  was  ably  assisted  by  his  wife.  Thus,  when 
he  died  in  1884,  she  was  found  to  be  thoroughly 
competent  to  direct  successfully  the  affairs  .of  the 
institution  they  had  built  up  together.  Under  her 
efficient  management  the  work  has  steadily  ad- 
vanced in  every  desirable  direction,  a  college  curric- 
ulum being  added  in  1885,  and  a  college  charter, 
with  power  to  confer  degrees,  received  from  the 
State.  During  Mrs.  Mills's  administration  three 
fine  buildings  and  twenty-five  acres  of  ground  have 
been  acquired,  making  the  entire  campus  now  one 
hundred  and  fifty  acres,  upon  which  flourish  more 
than  seventy-five  thousand  trees,  many  of  them  of 
that  superb  variety  for  which  California  is  justly 
noted.  At  the  urgent  request  of  the  trustees,  Mrs. 
Mills  still  continues  in  the  presidency  of  the  college. 
She  is  far  more,  too,  than  executive  head  of  the 
institution  —  though  she  is  that,  even  to  the  extent 
of  attending  to  corresponder  c.e ;  she  is  its  loving 
mother  and  patron.  More  than  four  thousand  young 
women  have  found  in  her  a  true  friend  and  coun- 
sellor as  well  as  an  able  teacher,  and  many  of  her 
former  pupils  are  now  proving  their  loving  appre- 
ciation of  her  helpful  kindness  by  placing  their 
daughters  under  her  tender  yet  stimulating  care. 

If  only  for  its  healthful  properties  —  out-of-door 


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A   RIDE    WITH    "  MICHAEL,    THE    FAITHFUL." 


Mills  College  211 

athletics  are  possible  all  the  year  round  —  Mills 
College  should  strongly  appeal  to  very  many  girls 
who  desire  the  higher  education.  In  a  recent  number 
of  the  United  States  Health  Bulletin  there  was 
printed,  quite  without  solicitation  on  the  part  of 
Mills,  this  splendid  endorsement :  "  The  United 
States  Health  Bulletin  has  had  occasion  to  examine 
quite  extensively  during  the  past  few  months  into 
the  condition  of  schools  and  colleges,  and,  if  some 
of  the  facts  that  have  come  to  our  notice  during 
these  investigations  were  generally  known,  we  be- 
lieve that  prospective  patrons  would  be  shocked  at 
the  unsanitary  and  disease-breeding  conditions 
existing  at  some  schools.  We  have  no  hesitation, 
however,  in  recommending  to  our  readers  Mills 
College,  Seminary  Park,  California.  This  met  with 
the  warm  approval  of  the  experts  investigating  these 
matters  for  us.  If  the  same  care  is  taken  with  the 
mental  welfare  of  the  pupil  as  is  shown,  and  plainly 
shown,  to  be  taken  with  the  physical,  we  feel  that  it 
deserves  the  support  of  parents  and  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  public.^' 

Both  these  last  valuable  aids  to  growth  are  now 
being  given  freely  to  Mills.  Within  the  past  two 
months  some  forty  thousand  dollars  has  been  sub- 
scribed toward  the  one  million  dollars  of  endowment 
to  which  the  institution  is  bending  all  its  energies. 


212  The  College  Girl  of  America 

The  feeling  is  growing  rapidly  that  a  college  de- 
voted solely  to  the  higher  education  of  women  is 
an  imperative  necessity  upon  the  Pacific  coast.  And 
it  is  further  felt  that  such  an  institution  of  learning 
can  best  be  built  upon  the  noble  beginning  already 
made  at  Mills.  At  present,  unfortunately,  the  col- 
lege—  because  of  lack  of  income-bearing  funds  — 
costs  a  good  deal,  it  being  next  to  impossible  for  a 
girl  to  get  through  on  less  than  four  hundred  dollars 
a  year.  Moreover,  the  liberal  arts  department  is 
now  rather  overweighted  with  a  preparatory  school, 
which  always  seems  a  pity  for  a  degree-bestowing 
institution.  Mills  fully  realizes  these  defects,  how- 
ever, and  is  remedying  them  as  fast  as  in  it  lies. 

What  a  unique  place  it  has  to  fill  can  be  gathered 
from  this  letter  recently  published  in  La  Democracia, 
a  Manila  newspaper,  by  a  young  Filipino  now  study- 
ing at  the  University  of  Michigan.  This  young  man 
spent  a  short  time  on  his  way  eastward  at  Mills 
College,  where  his  cousin  and  another  of  his  coun- 
trywomen—  the  only  Filipino  girls  to  come  as  yet 
to  America  for  their  education  —  are  students. 
The  letter  was  of  course  printed  in  Spanish.  It 
runs: 

"  As  I  chanced  to  come  to  the  United  States  on 
the  same  steamer  which  brought  two  Filipino  young 
women,    I   availed   myself  of  the  opportunity  to 


Mills  College  213 

become  acquainted  with  this  seat  of  learning  for 
women,  which,  as  I  learn  from  my  American 
friends,  is  the  best  on  the  Western  coast.  Even 
before  leaving  the  steamer  we  could  perceive  the 
excellent  working  system  of  this  college.  The 
young  women  of  whom  I  speak  came  without  other 
care  than  that  given  by  passengers  to  whom  they 
had  been  casually  recommended,  and  they  would, 
doubtless,  have  felt  quite  deserted  upon  arriving 
in  San  Francisco  had  they  not  seen  upon  the  dock 
a  professor  and  two  students  from  the  college.  The 
friends  took  charge  of  the  young  women  as  soon 
as  they  were  fairly  on  land,  telling  them  that  they 
were  about  an  hour's  ride  from  the  college  by  ferry, 
steam-cars,  and  electric  tramway. 

"  When  I  went  to  call  upon  the  young  ladies 
at  the  college  I  was  presented  to  Mrs.  Mills,  who 
inquires  personally  about  all  visitors  to  students, 
keeping  carefully  in  mind  the  wishes  of  the  parents 
and  guardians.  Mrs.  Mills,  who  is  seventy-eight 
years  of  age,  preserves  sufficient  vigour  of  mind 
and  body  to  direct  all  the  affairs  of  this  large 
institution.  As  for  the  college  buildings,  they  are 
six  in  number,  and  are  situated  in  a  valley  shut  in 
by  lofty  hills.  The  grounds  cover  one  hundred 
and  fifty  acres.    The  buildings  consist  of  the  main 


214  The  College  Girl  of  America 

dormitory,  recitation  building,  a  science-hall  with 
its  museum,  a  music-hall,  and  so  on. 

"  But  it  must  not  be  thought  that  the  main  build- 
ing is  a  mere  dormitory;  the  community  life  is  not 
exaggerated.  Outside  the  hours  for  recitation  and 
study,  the  students  are,  within  reasonable  limits,  their 
own  guardians,  and  may  amuse  themselves  and  take 
exercise  according  to  their  tastes.  The  students  have, 
each  two  of  them,  a  room  with  a  dressing-room 
which  they  keep  in  order  themselves.  This  room 
is  sitting-room,  bedroom  (two  beds),  and  study. 
Of  the  girls  now  here,  eighteen  or  nineteen  are 
from  Honolulu,  two  are  Parisians,  a  few  are  from 
the  Eastern  States,  and  one  is  a  South  American. 
All  the  rest,  with  the  exception  of  my  country- 
women, are  from  neighbouring  States  and  Terri- 
tories. 

"  The  college  is  non-sectarian,  yet  I  noticed  pic- 
tures of  Madonnas,  which  seemed,  as  it  were,  a 
recognition  of  the  source  of  all  religions.  The 
Roman  Catholic  students  have  at  their  disposal  a 
carriage  which  takes  them  to  a  church  of  their 
own  faith  in  the  nearest  town.  ...  I  feel  that 
matters  at  home  are  undergoing  such  changes,  espe- 
cially as  regards  education,  that  I  believe  what  I 
have  here  written  may  be  of  great  interest  to  those 
families  who  desire  to  send  their  daughters  to  this 


Mills  College  215 

country  to  be  educated.  Moreover,  the  climate  of 
the  college  is  milder  even  than  in  San  Francisco." 
The  latest  addition  to  the  Mills  College  buildings 
is  the  Campanile,  just  erected  to  contain  a  mag- 
nificent chime  of  bells,  presented  by  Hon.  David 
Hewes  some  time  ago,  but  called  "  the  silent  ten  " 
because  there  was  no  place  in  which  their  music 
could  be  heard.  The  tower  is  after  the  old  mission 
style,  and  its  door  with  the  quaint  lock  and  nails 
came  from  an  old  Spanish  church  in  Mexico.  On  the 
building  (presented  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  F.  M.  Smith 
of  Oakland)  is  a  tablet  with  this  beautiful  in- 
scription : 

"IN   LOYAL   REMEMBRANCE   OF    THOSE 

WHO   BY    TONGUE   OR   PEN, 

BY   GENEROUS   GIFT   OR   NOBLE   DEED 

HAVE    AIDED    WOMAN 

ON    HER    UPWARD    WAY,   THESE 

BELLS    CHIME   ON." 

Following  the  pretty  custom  of  naming  the  bells, 
their  donor  desired  that  they  should  be  called  after 
the  graces  of  the  spirit  as  found  in  Galatians.  Thus 
the  four  that  ring  the  chimes  are  Faith,  Hope, 
Peace,  and  Joy.  The  greatest  of  the  bells  is  Love, 
and  the  smallest  Meekness.  The  others  are  Gentle- 
ness, Goodness,  Self-Control,  and  Long-Suffering. 
At  the  close  of  the  impressive  exercises  of  dedica- 


2i6  The  College  Girl  of  America 

tion,  it  was  fittingly  pointed  out  that  the  music 
of  these  bells,  like  that  of  the  graduates  of  Mills 
College,  is  heard  alone  in  action,  that  the  bells, 
too,  respond  with  sweet  promptitude  to  each  new 
call  of  duty,  and  that  their  joy,  like  that  of  con- 
secrated educated  womanhood,  is  above  all  else  the 
joy  of  service. 


SIMMONS    COLLEGE 

Simmons  College  is  the  newest  of  the  important 
educational  institutions  provided  for  American  girls. 
In  scope  it  is  like  nothing  else,  not  even  like  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  to  which  it 
has  been  most  often  compared.  In  truth,  Simmons 
is  a  technical  college,  with  the  combination  of  edu- 
cation and  industry  as  its  chief  aim,  and  the  desire 
to  produce  women  at  once  cultivated  and  able  to 
serve  as  its  highest  ambition.  The  college  was 
established  in  1900  by  the  will  of  John  Simmons 
of  Boston,  who  had  died  some  thirty  years  before, 
leaving  the  bulk  of  his  fortune  for  an  institution  in 
which  should  be  given  instruction  in  such  branches 
of  art,  science,  and  industry  as  would  best  enable 
women  to  earn  an  independent  livelihood. 

The  money  left  by  Mr.  Simmons  was  allowed  to 
accumulate  during  the  years  between  his  death  and 
the  opening  of  the  college  for  instruction  in  Octo- 
ber, 1902.  And  not  funds  alone  were  piling  up 
all  this  time;  there  was  being  accumulated  also 
that  wealth  of  experience  and  intelligent  apprecia- 

ai7 


2i8  The  College  Girl  of  America 

tion  of  modern  needs,  which  has  been  freely  drawn 
upon  to  make  Simmons  what  it  is. 

Generally  speaking,  this  institution  supplies  train- 
ing in  lines  along  which  women  have  heretofore 
had  little  or  no  opportunity  for  study.  Yet  it  is 
because  Simmons  has  so  successfully  coalesced  the 
academic  and  the  technical  (by  cutting  out  the  least 
important  subjects  in  each)  as  really  to  give  a  girl 
in  four  years  the  essentials  of  a  liberal  education 
as  well  as  professional  training,  that  the  institu- 
tion is  uniquely  appealing.  The  pupils  here  are 
grouped  in  diverse  schools,  according  to  the  pro- 
fessional work  which  they  are  aiming  to  adopt. 
Of  these  schools  there  are  at  present  six :  A,  School 
of  Household  Economics;  B,  Secretarial  School; 
C,  Library  School ;  D,  School  of  Science ;  E,  School 
of  Horticulture;  F,  School  of  Social  Workers.  In 
each  one  of  these  schools  the  course  is  mainly  pre- 
scribed, technical  work  beginning,  however,  at  the 
outset,  and  gradually  increasing  with  the  pro- 
gressive years.  As,  on  the  other  hand,  the  girl 
approaches  the  end  of  her  course,  her  work  becomes 
all  the  time  less  and  less  academic. 

That  Simmons  really  meets  a  very  great  need 
in  the  educational  world  is  shown  by  the  fact  that, 
although  it  has  never  yet  graduated  a  class,  and 
although  it  has  up  to  the  present  time  been  at  a 


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Simmons  College  219 

great  disadvantage  in  that  it  has  lacked  an  adequate 
plant  (its  fine  new  building  opens  next  year),  it 
has  already  two  hundred  and  fifty  students.  On 
the  day  when  it  opened  its  doors,  there  were  eighty- 
five  girls  waiting  to  come  in.  No  student,  it  should 
be  understood,  is  taken  for  technical  work  only 
unless  she  has  already  had  an  academic  training; 
during  the  year  just  closing  there  were  studying  at 
this  college  twenty-seven  graduates  of  other  insti- 
tutions of  the  first  rank. 

President  Thwing  early  said  of  the  institution 
that  he  thought  college  graduates  would  be  the  first 
to  appreciate  it.  And  his  prophecy  has  been  proved 
quite  true.  In  the  School  of  Household  Economics, 
especially,  there  has  been  a  large  registration  of 
women  already  possessed  of  a  degree.  The  courses 
here  provide  adequate  preparation  for  directing  the 
home,  administering  an  institution,  or  for  teaching 
the  technical  subjects  included  in  household  econ- 
omics. The  dean  of  the  college,  Miss  Sarah  Louise 
Arnold,  A.  M.,  is  the  director  of  this  department. 
The  trend  of  the  work  here  accomplished  may,  per- 
haps, best  be  suggested  by  saying  that  once  a  week 
Miss  Arnold  talks  to  the  students  about  whatever 
is  newest  and  most  arresting  in  present-day  thought 
concerning  the  household.  The  apostles  of  the 
"  freedom  "  of  women  are  then  discussed,  and  the 


220  The  College  Girl  of  America 

girls  are  shown  that  to  be  free  in  the  highest  sense 
means  to  be  free  to  serve.  The  spiritual  value 
of  household  service  is  also  considered;  perhaps 
Lowell's  "  She  hath  no  scorn  of  common  things  " 
is  quoted  to  help  make  the  point  at  issue.  Simmons 
finds  it  by  no  means  impossible  to  unite  the  scientific 
and  the  spiritual. 

In  the  Secretarial  School  is  taught  all  that  goes 
to  produce  a  well-rounded,  intelligent,  and  thor- 
oughly-equipped secretary,  who  can  be  of  real  value 
to  persons  engaged  in  scientific,  literary  or  profes- 
sional pursuit.  Experience  has  shown  that  a  gen- 
erous academic  training  should  accompany  the  tech- 
nical work  in  preparation  for  secretarial  duties,  and 
for  this  reason  the  regular  programme  provides  in- 
struction in  branches  that  make  for  culture,  as  well 
as  in  shorthand,  typewriting,  and  business  methods. 
Moreover  the  two  things  in  every  case  go  together. 
Simmons  does  not  invite  girls  who  wish  to  learn 
merely  the  trade  parts  of  a  secretary's  work.  For 
this  reason  shorthand  and  typewriting  work  by  itself 
is  open  only  to  college  graduates. 

One  thing  about  this  college  which  strikes  the 
girl  from  Smith  or  Vassar  as  exceedingly  strange 
at  first,  is  that  attendance  is  required  at  all  college 
exercises,  the  student  being  expected  to  render  a 
very  adequate  excuse  to  the  Dean,  whenever  she  has 


Simmons  College  221 

been  absent  from  class.  Moreover,  no  student 
whose  attendance  is  especially  irregular  is  allowed 
to  continue  in  a  class.  From  the  Simmons'  point 
of  view,  this  rule  is  quite  reasonable.  The  college 
feels  that  it  is  its  definite  trust  to  prepare  young 
women  for  self-maintenance.  Loyalty  to  this  trust 
demands  that  every  girl  the  college  turns  out  must 
be  equal  to  the  responsibilities  of  service.  Now  this 
can  be  true,  it  is  argued,  only  when  an  employer 
may  be  guaranteed  that  the  girl  recommended  to 
him  has  a  true  sense  of  her  duty  in  the  matter  of 
promptness  and  regularity.  In  order  to  fit  a  girl  for 
the  work  in  which  she  is  to  enlist,  every  absence, 
therefore,  during  her  college  course,  must  be  defi- 
nitely explained.  The  spirit  which  the  college  is 
honestly  trying  to  inculcate  is,  perhaps,  best  ex- 
pressed in  the  closing  lines  of  a  hymn  just  written 
for  the  undergraduates,  by  Miss  Arnold : 

«  Make  us,  thy  children,  strong,  pure  and  just. 
Send  us  to  labour,  when  leave  thee  we  must 
Ready  for  service  and  worthy  of  trust  P 

Of  the  Library  School,  which  trains  students  to 
serve  as  assistants  in  large  libraries,  or  to  assume 
charge  of  small  libraries;  of  the  School  of  Science, 
designed  for  those  who  wish  to  prepare  themselves 
for  teaching  science  or  for  assisting  in  scientific 


222  The  College  Girl  of  America 

departments;  of  the  School  of  Horticuhure,  which 
will  give  theoretical  training  in  Boston,  with  the 
third  or  fourth  years  at  the  Massachusetts  Agricul- 
tural College  in  Amherst,  I  shall  not  speak  at  any 
length.  But  of  the  School  for  Social  Workers,  I 
wish  to  give  some  sketch,  inasmuch  as  its  scope  and 
organization  is  very  far  from  clear  to  many  in- 
terested people. 

The  purpose  of  this  school  is  to  give  opportunities 
to  men  and  women  to  study  social  problems  by 
practical  methods,  and  it  will  bring  together  students 
and  workers  who  are  considering,  from  various 
points  of  view,  the  many  problems  which  are  of 
concern  to  all.  Its  course  begins  in  October,  1904, 
and  will  cover  one  academic  year.  In  the  future, 
however,  the  training  will  form  the  fourth  year  of 
a  regular  Simmons  College  course,  leading  to  grad- 
uation, and  ultimately,  probably,  to  the  degree  B.  S. 
The  organization  of  this  school  came  about  rather 
curiously.  To  start  such  a  department,  was  one  of 
Simmons's  plans  from  the  beginning,  but  when  the 
trustees  got  around  to  the  matter,  they  found  that 
some  of  the  charity  organizations  of  Boston  wanted 
to  have  a  stake  in  just  such  a  school,  and  had  al- 
ready done  something  toward  the  project.  These 
organizations  were  anxious  that  men  as  well  as 
women  should  have  opportunity  to  be  trained  in 


Simmons  College  223 

this  way,  and  Harvard  was  named  as  a  possible  aid. 
President  Eliot,  when  consulted  on  the  subject, 
expressed  his  willingness  to  cooperate  with  Sim- 
mons in  the  matter  of  such  a  school,  and  the  result 
of  it  all  was  a  plan  by  which  men  who  desire  to 
study  in  the  School  for  Social  Workers  register 
at  Harvard,  and  girls  desirous  of  taking  the  same 
course  enrol  themselves  at  Simmons. 

One-third  of  the  students  at  Simmons  College  are 
in  residence,  their  single  dormitory  house  being 
a  very  pleasant  four-story  brick  building  near  the 
Public  Library  and  the  Art  Museum.  Here,  for 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year,  a  girl 
lives  in  great  comfort.  Tuition  at  Simmons  being 
one  hundred  dollars  a  year,  no  girl  need  spend  more 
than  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  annually,  ob- 
taining an  admirable  education.  Life  in  Simmons 
Hall  is  in  many  ways  delightful.  Every  evening 
after  dinner  there  is  dancing  for  an  hour  in  the 
large  assembly-room  on  the  ground  floor;  from 
half-past  seven  to  half-past  nine  are  study  hours 
(during  which  time  the  halls  must  be  quiet)  ;  be- 
tween half-past  nine  and  ten  there  is  always  fun  of 
many  sorts  going  on.  At  half-past  ten  lights  are 
out.  Saturday  evening  is  the  off-night;  it  has  no 
study  hours.  Then  there  is  almost  always  some 
frolic  to  the  fore.     Sometimes  this  takes  the  form 


224  The  College  Girl  of  America 

of  a  shadow-party,  at  another  time  it  will  be  "  Alice 
in  Wonderland  "  illustrated.  On  Hallowe'en  Sim- 
mons girls  had  a  sheet-and-pillow-case  party,  to 
which  everybody  came  masked.  The  room  was 
dark,  Jack-o'-lanterns  supplying  the  only  illumina- 
tion, while  the  refreshments  served  were  of  the  real 
up-country  variety  —  apples,  pop-corn,  and  dough- 
nuts. 

Not  without  design  was  this  house  in  the  heart 
of  the  city  chosen.  The  close  human  contact  such 
a  situation  entails  was  felt  to  be  most  important, 
inasmuch  as  many  of  the  girls  who  come  to  Sim- 
mons are  from  the  country,  and  would  have  no 
opportunity,  did  they  not  get  it  while  in  college, 
to  learn  the  best  and  wisest  ways  of  conducting 
themselves  in  a  large  city. 

But  it  is  in  work  rather  than  in  play  that  Sim- 
mons girls  are  chiefly  interested.  Unlike  college 
girls  in  general,  they  have,  when  they  enter,  a  clear 
conception  of  what  they  wish  to  do  with  their  lives. 


NEWCOMB    AND    OTHER    COLLEGES    OF 
THE    SOUTH 

There  is  no  more  striking  commentary  on  the 
"  new  time  "  in  the  South  than  is  supplied  by  the 
H.  Sophie  Newcomb  Memorial  College,  —  the 
woman's  department  of  Tulane  University,  Louisi- 
ana. Before  the  war,  the  South  kept  pace  with  the 
North  in  the  matter  of  education ;  and  it  endorsed 
"  coeducation  *'  quite  as  early  as  did  any  college  in 
the  country.  But  schools  went  down  in  the  general 
crash  of  institutions,  and  a  period  of  ignorance, 
amounting  —  in  the  case  of  girls,  at  any  rate  —  to 
a  sort  of  "  dark  age,"  ensued.  The  North,  mean- 
time, got  about  a  quarter  of  a  century's  start.  It 
is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  the  South  can  so  soon 
have  made  up  that  long  time  disadvantage;  that  it 
has  so  nearly  done  so  may  fairly  enough  be  called 
a  marvel. 

In  reconstruction  times  the  public  schools  South 
were  open  to  whites  and  negroes  alike.  The  radi- 
cal government  of  carpet-baggers  insisted  on  mix- 
ing the  races,  and  so  repugnant  was  this  to  the  preju- 

225 


226  The  College  Girl  of  America 

diced  Southeraer,  that  all  who  could  afford  to  pay 
sent  their  boys  and  girls  to  private  schools.  Here 
was  a  field  for  the  reduced  Southern  gentlewoman, 
and  many  a  one  overhauled  her  learning  for  the 
benefit  of  a  new  generation,  and  set  up  an  establish- 
ment of  little  practical  value,  where  accomplish- 
ments were  instilled  in  a  refined  but  wholly  super- 
ficial way  into  the  daughters  of  the  Southern  aris- 
tocracy. In  the  absence  of  system  and  discipline, 
it  is  little  winder  that  education  in  these  mistresses* 
schools  fell  into  a  decline.  Nor  did  the  public 
schools  fare  much  better.  Certainly  they  were  not 
able  to  give  good  training  to  refined  young  women. 
Southern  girls  were  quite  unready,  therefore,  for 
advanced  education  when,  under  the  supervision  of 
President  Brandt  V.  D.  Dixon,  the  nucleus  of  the 
Sophie  Newcomb  Memorial  College  was  first  estab- 
lished. At  that  time  Latin  was  not  taught  in  the 
public  schools,  and  of  the  thirty  applicants  for  ad- 
mission to  the  new  college,  there  were  scarcely  six 
who  could  have  passed  a  respectable  high  school 
entrance  examination.  So  it  was  with  very  scant 
pupil  material  that  the  future  great  college  of  the 
South  opened  its  doors.  Its  aims  were  only  vaguely 
outlined  at  the  beginning.  But  it  had  at  its  head 
a  master  whose  ideals  were  fixed  high,  and  who 
meant  that  this  school  should  expand  rapidly. 


Newcomb  and  Other  Colleges  of  the  South  227 

The  young  women  of  the  South  took  readily  to 
the  idea  of  higher  education,  and  from  the  single 
building  given  by  Mrs.  Josephine  Louise  Newcomb, 
in  memory  of  an  only  daughter,  the  college  plant 
rapidly  expanded.  President  Dixon  soon  found 
himself  possessed  of  a  pleasant  charge.  Daughters 
of  brilliant  and  famous  leaders  of  the  Confederacy 
came  to  him,  and  proved  their  inheritance  by  a  sur- 
prising grasp  and  aptness  in  learning.  Languages 
and  sciences  were  easy  for  them,  for  they  were  en- 
dowed with  many  natural  gifts.  In  a  few  years 
Ithe  college  buildings  had  spread  over  an  entire 
square,  several  acres  in  extent,  on  Washington 
Avenue,  Camp,  Chestnut,  and  Sixth  Streets,  New 
Orleans,  and  behind  the  whole  movement  stood  the 
gracious  Mrs.  Newcomb,  meeting  the  financial  de- 
mands promptly,  and  cheerfully  acquiescing,  as  the 
president's  ideas  evolved,  in  the  noble  and  far- 
reaching  plans  his  fertile  brain  created. 

To-day  Newcomb  College  is  practically  on  a  par 
with  Vassar  and  the  great  women's  colleges  of  the 
North.  Its  entrance  examinations  are  nearly  the 
same.  Four  hundred  young  wt)men  from  the  South- 
ern States,  as  far  north  as  Kentucky,  come  to  this 
Mecca  of  learning. 

Geographically  considered,  no  college  in  the  South 
can  hope  to  rival  Newcomb  or  even  compete  with  it. 


228  The  College  Girl  of  America 

Its  position  ensures  its  future.  For,  situated  as  it 
is,  at  the  tip  end  of  the  continent,  it  cannot  but 
command  the  attention  of  the  country  south  of  it, 
across  the  stretch  of  water  which  separates  the 
Americas.  Already  students  have  come  here  from 
Cuba  and  Mexico,  and  it  is  safe  to  predict  that  Cen- 
tral and  South  American  republics  will  fall  duly 
into  line.  New  Orleans  is  accessible  from  all  parts 
of  the  South,  and  the  educational  facilities  to  be 
enjoyed  in  its  libraries  and  museums  have,  no 
doubt,  contributed  in  considerable  degree  to  the  suc- 
cess of  Newcomb  College. 

President  Dixon,  too,  has  been  a  very  important 
factor  in  the  institution's  growth.  He  is  preemi- 
nently fitted  for  the  position  he  occupies,  for,  besides 
being  a  scholar  and  a  philosopher,  he  has  unusual 
sympathy  for  the  sex  he  has  essayed  to  teach.  The 
discussion  concerning  the  "  new  "  woman  he  has 
summed  up  thus  sensibly :  "  The  woman's  college 
is  no  longer  to  pose  as  an  imitation,  There  is  no 
need  of  rivalry  between  the  sexes.  Up  to  a  certain 
point  the  same  training  answers  for  both;  beyond 
that  their  courses  diverge,  and  this  implies  no  less 
science,  nothing  inferior,  in  the  required  education 
for  women.  Men  and  women  were  intended  to 
play  different  roles  in  the  world,  and  neither  can 
be  too  well  fitted  for  the  work.    The  home  requires 


MAIN     ENTRANCE    TO    NEWCOMP,    COLLEGE. 


R  ■  •  •* 

f -li . 

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m 

BtobTf^^ 

af*#«- 

■^iteia.  m       '  '-'^^^MViVjjimHBi^^^^^B 

"■'    ^  '**   ■   •     ■      "^  ■        ""^— "■- 

..  ■>./■.,'  ^''"  - 

NEWCOMB    COLLEGE    CHAPEL 


Newcomb  and  Other  Colleges  of  the  South  229 

science  as  does  the  world  outside  of  it.  I  have  great 
hopes  of  Newcomb.  It  is  wonderful  what  gifts  are 
hidden  in  the  Southern  girl.  As  the  finest  product 
of  plantation  days  would  grace  the  social  world  any- 
where, her  daughter  promises  even  more,  and  is  able 
to  take  her  place  among  the  women  of  culture  in 
whatever  section." 

It  is  the  aim  of  this  educator  nicely  to  combine 
the  theoretical  and  the  practical,  and  so  to  fit  his 
girls  for  usefulness  either  in  the  home  or  in  the 
industrial  world.  He  proposes  to  unite  in  Newcomb 
the  culture  of  Vassar  and  the  practicality  of  Pratt 
Institute.  Not  only  is  his  college  possessed  of  the 
usual  academic  facilities,  but  it  has,  as  well,  in  its 
curriculum  studies  intended  to  prepare  the  student 
for  a  workaday  world.  Chief  among  these  latter 
are  the  departments  of  pottery  and  of  church  em- 
broidery. The  former  has  made  Newcomb  famous 
in  the  markets  of  Europe  as  well  as  of  America. 
The  latter,  though  of  more  recent  origin,  is  favour- 
ably regarded  wherever  known. 

Newcomb's  pottery  department  is  a  natural  out- 
growth of  the  college's  efforts  to  educate  teachers 
of  the  fine  arts,  and  to  become  a  centre  of  aesthetic 
culture.  When  it  was  discovered  that  the  work  as 
formerly  conducted  lacked  practicality,  it  was  de- 
termined that  a  school  in  an  industrial  direction  was 


230  The  College  Girl  of  America 

what  the  South  needed,  in  order  that  the  prosperity 
of  the  locaHty  should  be  increased,  and  the  critical 
power  of  the  public  developed.  In  1896,  accord- 
ingly, a  pottery  was  established  as  a  dependency  of 
the  Sophie  Newcomb  College,  and  an  effort  made 
to  create  an  artistic  industry  which  should  so  util- 
ize native  raw  material  and  develop  native  talent, 
as  effectively  to  symbolize  the  place  of  its  activity, 
and  enlist  the  attention  of  the  outside  world.  Thus 
there  grew  up  and  was  reflected  in  the  Newcomb 
products  what  has  been  called  a  "  sectional  patriot- 
ism." None  but  Southern  clays  are  used  in  the 
pottery,  and  the  rich  and  varied  flora  of  the  South 
has  supplied,  almost  exclusively,  the  designs  for  the 
work.  Two  years  ago  there  was  provided  by  the 
directors  of  Newcomb  College  a  pottery  building 
which  is  likewise  "  sectionally  patriotic."  An  excel- 
lent representative  of  the  Spanish-Colonial  type  of 
architecture  peculiar  to  New  Orleans,  yet  a  structure 
which  is  none  the  less  perfectly  fitted  to  the  needs 
of  the  present,  the  home  of  this  chaste  and  simple 
Pottery  School  of  Newcomb  may  be  held  one  of  the 
choicest  possessions  of  Tulane  University.  Before 
leaving  the  very  alluring  subject  of  this  pottery, 
it  should  be  said  that  every  piece  here  turned  out 
is  original,  and  never  duplicated;  that  it  bears  the 


THE    POTTERY    DEPARTMENT,    NEWCOMB    COLLEGE. 


0    W ^  ''W^^^  '^  jt'tm'J'-  ■■ '-  "^'^i**  ••  ■  'Si 


i-sm^ 


■**•* 


A    PAINTING    CLASS,    NEWCOMB    COLLEGE. 


Newcomb  and  Other  Colleges  of  the  South  231 

monograms  of  the  college,  the  designer,  and  the 
potter. 

In  the  needlework  products,  also,  high  ideals  and 
devotion  to  home  materials  prevail,  native  cotton 
being  generally  used,  and  the  work  done  on  cloth 
woven  by  the  students  themselves,  and  dyed  in  such 
simple  colourings  as  native  vegetable  matter  affords. 

It  should  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  in- 
dustrial departments  overbalance  the  academic  ones. 
In  courses  as  well  as  in  buildings,  the  equipment  is 
adequate.  There  is  able  instruction  along  all  liberal 
art  lines ;  there  are  chemical,  physical,  and  biological 
laboratories,  a  good  library,  a  lecture-hall  capable 
of  seating  seven  hundred  persons,  a  gymnasium, 
and  a  college  chapel,  this  last  a  beautiful  memorial 
to  the  remarkable  young  girl  whose  death  furnished 
the  college  bequest  to  the  women  of  the  South. 

Although  young  in  years,  the  campus  group  has 
taken  on  a  grace  which  speaks  well  for  its  place  in 
the  hearts  of  Southern  women.  Already,  a  million 
dollars  has  been  expended  by  Mrs.  Newcomb  (now 
deceased)  in  buildings,  grounds,  and  endowments. 
Five  residences  for  boarding  students  are  provided 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  college,  perhaps 
the  most  imposing  being  the  Josephine  Louise 
House,  where  every  provision  has  been  made  for 
the  comfort  and  care  of  occupants.     Visitors  are 


232  The  College  Girl  of  America 

always  immensely  impressed  by  the  elegance  of  this 
magnificent  old  mansion-house,  which  seems,  in  very 
truth,  a  proper  product  of  the  most  glorious  era 
in  New  Orleans's  history.  Nor  is  Newcomb  pro- 
hibitive in  its  expense.  A  girl  may  live  in  the  col- 
lege and  pay  all  her  tuition  fees  for  only  a  little 
more  than  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  a 
year. 

Tulane  is,  however,  not  the  only  university  of  the 
South  which  has  made  generous  provision  for 
women.  The  manner  of  doing  this  differs,  of 
course,  in  different  colleges,  and  women  avail  them- 
selves differently  of  their  privileges.  The  Univer- 
sity of  Nashville,  in  Tennessee,  has  two  hundred 
and  ninety-four  women  students  in  its  collegiate 
department,  and  the  University  of  Texas,  two  hun- 
dred and  forty-eight.  Stetson  University,  in  Flor- 
ida, on  the  other  hand,  has  only  twenty-seven 
students. 

A  very  large  and  immensely  successful  women's 
division  is  in  the  University  of  the  State  of  Missouri. 

Here  every  provision  for  the  comfort,  as  well  as 
for  the  education,  of  women  has  been  made.  Not 
only  are  all  departments  of  learning  open  to  women 
students,  but  they  have  their  own  admirably  pro- 
tected student  life  besides.  It  is  here  recognized  that 
the  home  in  which  a  girl  shall  live,  while  at  a  co- 


Newcomb  and  Other  Colleges  of  tlie  South  233 

educational  college,  is  of  immense  importance. 
When,  therefore.  Read  Hall  was  erected  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  women  students  at  Missouri, 
the  greatest  pains  were  taken  to  have  it  the 
best  possible  building  of  the  kind.  People  who  have 
seen  most  of  the  university  and  college  houses  be- 
tween the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  unite  in  consider- 
ing this  hall  one  of  the  finest  and  best  equipped  in 
the  whole  country.  The  furnishings  are  of  the  best 
natural  wood,  Oriental  rugs,  hardwood  floors,  and 
artistic  burlap  contributing  to  the  beauty  of  the 
house.  Read  Hall  is  the  first  dormitory  here,  and 
it  is  expected  that  it  will  be  the  nucleus  of  a  large 
hall  and  cottage  system.  It  is  truly  a  social  centre 
for  the  women  of  the  university,  and,  presided  over 
as  it  is  by  a  woman  graduated  both  from  Wellesley 
and  from  Chicago  University,  the  life  is  at  a  high 
standard  of  excellence.  The  cost  of  living  in  this 
house  is  five  dollars  a  week. 

Provision  is  also  made  for  the  comfort  of  day- 
students,  as  well  as  for  that  of  girls  boarding  at  the 
University  of  Missouri.  In  the  main  building  is  a 
very  large  room,  beautifully  furnished  in  shades  of 
rose,  with  Morris,  rattan,  and  rocking-chairs,  and 
many  couches,  where  the  girls  may  rest  or  study  if 
they  like.  Here  all  day  long  is  to  be  found  a  delight- 
fully refined  and  cultivated  gentlewoman  of  the  old 


234  The  College  Girl  of  America 

Southern  school,  ready  to  be  of  any  service  what- 
ever to  students. 

A  distinctly  unique  feature  of  the  women's  life 
at  this  university  is  the  required  golf.  When  the 
present  gymnasium  director  began  her  work  with 
the  girls,  her  first  decision  was  that,  inasmuch  as  out- 
door exercise  is  possible  in  this  section  for  a  longer 
period  than  farther  north,  outdoor  work  should 
receive  greater  attention  than  had  ever  been  given 
it.  She  argued,  too,  that  if  university  funds  may 
legitimately  be  used  to  supply  indoor  apparatus 
(available  less  than  half  the  year),  the  same  funds 
might  properly  be  employed  for  such  outfits  as  are 
necessary  to  golf  and  tennis.  This  argument  seemed 
plausible  enough  to  the  authorities,  and  money  was 
speedily  forthcoming  for  the  purchase  of  several 
sets  of  golf -clubs  and  for  tennis-rackets.  Thereupon 
the  enterprising  gymnasium  director  added  golf  to 
the  list  of  required  gymnastics. 

The  golf  links  are  used  for  the  May  Festival  of 
the  women  students,  as  well  as  for  outside  "  gym  " 
work.  This  festival  is  something  in  the  nature  of 
a  picnic  in  its  informality,  its  programme  of  vaude- 
ville. May-pole  dancing,  and  so  on,  being  greatly 
enjoyed  by  the  participating  girls.  The  life  of 
women  students  at  this  university  seems,  indeed,  to 
be  particularly  sane  and  wholesome. 


A    BASKET -BALL    CONTEST,    HOLLINS    INSTITUTE. 


9  . « #^»ifcftf*-^i.aa^  ij^  _x. 

^ 

;£ 

m 

» 

■P^pr«— ■ 

A    COASTING    PARTY,    HOLLINS    INSTITUTE. 


Newcomb  and  Other  Colleges  of  the  South  235 

Besides  Read  Hall,  there  are  two  homes  for  mem- 
bers of  fraternities,  each  of  which  is  in  the  care 
of  a  house  chaperon  who  looks  well  to  the  comfort 
'  )f  the  ten  girls  under  her  charge,  and,  in  Mt.  Hol- 
)ke  House,  girl  students  find  a  home  similar  to 
at  of  Read  Hall,  at  a  somewhat  cheaper  rate, 
r  here,   the   dining-room   being  managed   after 
manner  of  a  club,  the  total  expense  of  living 
<nly  about  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  week. 
.  is  certainly  fine  to  realize  that  a  Missouri  girl 
n  get  her  college  training  (tuition  being  free)  for 
aef  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year. 
One  worthy  type  of  college  which  has  produced 
me  of  the  very  best  of  modem  Southern  women 
xists  in  the  South,  however,  quite  outside  univer- 
sity protection.    A  particularly  reputable  represent- 
ative of  this  type  is  Hollins  Institute,  Hollins,  Vir- 
•inia.    Founded  in  1842,  the  Institute  has  now  been 
■lie  to  acquire  noble  traditions,  as  well  as  a  very 
dequate  background.     It  owns  five  hundred  acres, 
^even  miles  from  the  city  of  Roanoke,  and  has  six 
large  brick  buildings,  so  located  as  to  be  quite  ex- 
cluded from  the  annoyances  of  close  proximity  to 
public  thoroughfares.    Every  Southern  State  is  here 
represented.     And  so  successful  is  the  institution, 
that  during  recent  years  it  has  had  to  decline  many 
pupils.      Its    attitude    is    most    engagingly    naive. 


236  The  College  Girl  of  America 

"  Young  ladies  who  enter  this  institute/'  the  cata- 
logue explains,  '*  are  treated  with  the  respect  and 
attention  which  their  sex  ever  receive  at  the  hands 
of  good  society  in  Virginia."  And  in  truth  :t  ap- 
pears to  be  a  very  "  happifying  "  and  healthy  life 
v^hich  girls  lead  here.  For  the  whole  term  —  ex- 
cept perhaps  six  weeks,  and  then  there  is  good 
coasting  and  skating  —  the  students  enjoy  outdoor 
recreation ! 

Another  justly  famous  Southern  school  is  the 
Mary  Baldwin  Seminary  at  Staunton,  Virginia. 
Here  the  aim  is  to  give  the  school  all  that  purity 
and  refinement  that  characterize  a  model  Virginia 
home,  the  very  atmosphere  of  which  is  an  incentive 
to  higher  things,  and  an  inspiration  to  lofty  ideals. 
With  this  in  view,  the  seminary  has  a  great  many 
buildings,  so  that  the  number  of  girls  under  any 
one  roof  is  small.  The  houses  are  dotted  about 
over  a  broad  hillside  which  is  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful spots  in  the  famed  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  are 
of  aesthetic  beauty,  as  well  as  of  notable  comfort. 
The  school  was  established  in  1842,  as  the  Augusta 
Female  Seminary,  but  in  the  time  of  the  Civil  War 
it  fell  into  the  hands  of  Agnes  McClung  and  Mary 
Baldwin,  two  consecrated  women,  who,  regardless 
of  the  terrible  conditions  all  about,  devoted  their 
lives  to  the  sustaining  and  upbuilding  of  this  work. 


1 

1 

! 

1 

J 

1      .•,„,,     ;^          t 

»■■■■  -  ■*" 

PARLOUR  AT  MARY  BALDWIN  SEMINARY. 


GOLF  LINKS  AT  MARY  BALDWIN  SEMINARY. 


Newcomb  and  Other  Colleges  of  the  South  237 

Fittingly,  indeed,  are  the  birthdays  of  these  two 
noble  teachers  of  a  past  generation  observed  as 
holidays  by  the  school. 

Lucy  Cobb  Institute,  at  Athens,  Georgia,  is  an- 
other good  school  which  has  successfully  survived 
the  disturbances  of  the  war  and  the  unsettled  con- 
ditions which  followed.  Presided  over  at  present 
by  a  charming  Southern  woman,  it  is  now  in  the 
height  of  its  usefulness.  Tlie  faculty  at  this  school 
is  composed  entirely  of  ladies,  although  a  number 
of  distinguished  men  are  among  the  regular  lec- 
turers. A  particular  point  is  made  here  of  the 
study  of  Shakespeare  and  of  the  English  Bible,  as 
well  as  of  literature  in  its  broadest  and  best  sense. 

Another  Georgia  institution  of  merit  is  Shorter 
College  in  Rome,  founded  in  1877  by  the  Southern 
philanthropist,  Alfred  Shorter.  This  college  aimed 
at  its  outset  to  make  it  possible  for  Southern  girls 
to  secure  in  their  own  part  of  the  country  educa- 
tional advantages  equal  to  those  enjoyed  by  their 
Northern  sisters,  and  to  that  end  Colonel  Shorter, 
after  the  erection  of  magnificent  buildings,  gave  the 
new  institution  a  large  endowment.  Tlius  students 
may  be  educated  here  at  much  less  expense  than 
would  be  possible  in  any  college  supported  merely 
by  its  tuition  fees.  The  courses  are  more  distinctly 
academic,  too,  than  in  many  of  the  Southern  col- 


238  The  College  Girl  of  America 

leges  for  women;  of  so  high  a  rank,  indeed,  that 
Yale  has  formally  agreed  to  accq)t  Shorter  gradu- 
ates into  its  university  departments  without  prelimi- 
nary examinations,  thus  placing  them  on  the  same 
footing  with  those  who  have  taken  degrees  in  liberal 
Northern  institutions. 

Still  another  Georgia  institute  worthy  of  atten- 
tion and  respect  is  the  Agnes  Scott  School,  first 
opened  in  September,  1889,  "  for  the  higher  edu- 
cation of  young  Southern  women."  The  main  build- 
ing, together  with  its  furnishing  and  equipment  and 
the  lot  upon  which  it  stands,  were  the  gift  of  Col. 
George  W.  Scott,  and  the  school  has  been  named  in 
honour  of  his  mother.  This  institution  is  distinctly 
and  positively  Christian,  the  Bible  being  used  as 
a  text-book.  Christian  ideals  are  dominant,  and  the 
formation  and  development  of  character,  a  prime 
end.  Evidence  of  Agnes  Scott's  promptness  to 
meet  needs  as  they  arise  may  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  a  very  fine  gymnasium  building,  equipped  with 
a  swimming-pool  and  all  modern  appliances,  has 
just  been  erected. 

At  the  Southern  Female  College,  College  Park, 
Georgia,  near  Atlanta,  -five  different  kinds  of  degree 
are  conferred,  considerable  emphasis  being  also 
placed  upon  music.  The  home  life  at  this  college 
is  given  painstaking  attention;    etiquette  and  man- 


Newcomb  and  Other  Colleges  of  the  South  239 

ners  are  discussed,  and  aesthetic  environment  pro- 
vided, "  while  habits  of  Hfe,  companionships,  ac- 
complishments, study-hours,  reading,  and  religious 
interests,  are  stressed  most  of  all."  It  is  rather  curi- 
ous to  read  in  the  catalogue  of  this  degree-bestow- 
ing institution,  that  silks  are  not  allowed,  and  that 
boarders  are  not  permitted  to  leave  the  grounds, 
except  in  the  company  of  teachers. 

Farther  North,  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  is  the 
Woman's  College,  distinctly  Southern  and  decidedly 
interesting.  The  main  building  here  was  used  as 
a  hospital  during  the  war,  "  and  has  always  seemed 
to  me,"  comments  one  graduate  of  the  school, 
"  haunted  by  memories  of  cots  and  surgeon's 
knives."  With  a  history  covering  fifty  useful  years, 
with  good  buildings,  and  with  six  departments,  this 
Virginian  institution  may  well  hope  to  do  much 
good  work  in  the  future  for  the  education  of  South- 
em  girls.  The  paternal  spirit  here  regnant  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  in  the  catalogue  it  is 
especially  stipulated  that  "  each  pupil  must  have  an 
umbrella,  overshoes,  and  waterproof." 

Concerning  other  colleges  and  institutes  and 
seminaries  of  the  South,  one  could  easily  write  vol- 
umes, for  their  name  is  legion.  They  are  doing  a 
great  deal,  too,  for  the  education  of  Southern  girls. 
I  would  by  no  means  be  understood  as  denying  this. 


240  The  College  Girl  of  America 

But  most  of  them  are,  of  course,  very  far  indeed 
from  being  colleges  in  the  Northern  acceptation  of 
the  term,  —  whether  they  do  or  do  not  offer  degrees. 
Truth  to  tell,  the  degree  part  of  these  institutions  is 
frequently  almost  lost  in  their  utility  ends.  The 
Arkadelphia  Methodist  College,  at  Arkadelphia, 
Arkansas,  for  instance,  gave  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Arts  in  1903  to  one  young  man,  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Science  to  three  girls,  that  of  Bachelor 
of  Philosophy  to  five  girls,  —  and  graduated  thirty- 
three  young  men  and  young  women  in  courses  of 
dressmaking,  elocution,  piano  music,  shorthand  and 
typewriting,  banking,  and  bookkeeping.  This  "  col- 
lege '\  is  distinctly  interesting,  however,  in  that  it  is 
the  only  one,  so  far  as  I  can  find,  which  has  intro- 
duced instruction  in  artistic  photography.  Inasmuch 
as  there  is  considerable  opportunity  for  both  men  and 
women  now  to  earn  large  sums  of  money  by  means 
of  this  useful  craft,  Arkadelphia  is  certainly  to  be 
congratulated  upon  its  enterprise  in  providing  such 
a  department. 

But  skill  in  photography  is  not  what  we  of  the 
North  expect  to  find  in  our  Southern  college  sisters. 
Neither  do  we  regard  with  a  very  great  degree  of 
veneration  a  "  college "  instructor  whose  claim  to 
fitness  for  his  position  rests  upon  the  fact  that  he 
is  a  graduate  of  a  Northern  commercial  school. 


Newcomb  and  Other  Colleges  of  the  South  241 

The  Southern  institutions  which  call  themselves 
seminaries  and  train  for  refined  young  ladyhood, 
are  entitled  to  respect  because  they  are  doing  ex- 
actly what  they  were  bom  to  do.  But  it  would 
seem  wise  and  honest  —  would  it  not  ?  —  for  an 
institution  which  is  a  trade-school  in  fact,  to  be  a 
trade-school  in  name  also. 


COEDUCATIONAL     COLLEGES     OF     THE 
WEST 

The  more  one  studies  coeducation,  the  more  one 
is  inclined  to  apply  to  it  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley's 
astute  remark,  "  There  is  here  much  to  be  said  on 
both  sides."  Even  so  clear-headed  and  careful  a 
speaker  as  President  M.  Carey  Thomas  of  Bryn 
Mawr  nods  first  this  way  and  then  that,  it  would 
appear,  when  this  puzzling  topic  is  under  discussion. 
On  one  occasion  she  is  quoted  as  saying,  "  I  heartily 
approve  of  coeducation."  But  on  another,  — 
Smith's  quarter-centennial  in  1900,  —  she  remarked, 
"  I  am  myself  a  graduate  of  Cornell,  and  I  suspect 
that  I  missed  a  great  deal  of  the  air  of  the  world's 
spirit  natural  to  youth  that  I  should  have  found 
in  women's  colleges.  I  know  that  I  missed  much 
of  the  delight  of  college  life  known  to  girls  in  the 
women's  colleges  of  to-day.  .  .  .,  If  only  the 
academic  standard  of  women's  colleges  can  be  kept 
equal  to  that  of  the  best  colleges  for  men,  the  pref- 
erence for  women's  colleges  seems  to  me,  on  the 
whole,  a  wise  one."     Yet  farther  on  in  the  same 

242 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       243 

paper  Miss  Thomas  characterizes  the  then  just 
proposed  scheme  to  exclude  women  and  organize 
them  into  a  separate  college,  —  which  has  now  been 
carried  out  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  —  as  "a 
distinctly  backward  step  for  woman's  education." 

Other  able  writers  have  waxed  no  less  wroth  over 
Chicago's  "  deadly  blow  at  coeducation,"  claiming 
that,  when,  in  1890,  the  two  great  modern  univer- 
sities of  Chicago  and  Stanford  were  founded  with 
every  privilege  freely  accorded  to  women,  they  first 
came  into  their  own.  As  a  matter  of  fact  there  are, 
of  course,  decided  advantages  as  well  as  grave  dis- 
advantages in  coeducation.  President  Thwing  has 
put  these  neatly  in  a  single  paragraph :  "  Coedu- 
cation," he  says,  "  has  the  advantage  of  economy 
and  also  of  directness  of  preparation  for  certain 
women;  coeducation  helps  the  woman  who  is  to 
be  obliged  to  earn  her  own  living  to  become  vigor- 
ous and  aggressive.  Coeducation,  on  the  other  hand, 
has  in  my  opinion,  though  not  in  the  opinion  of 
everybody,  the  c?wadvantage  of  lessening  man's 
instinctive  respect  for  womanhood.  It  has  also  the 
disadvantage  of  making  some   women  mannish." 

It  is  almost  universally  conceded  that  coeducation 
has  worked  much  better  in  the  West  than  in  the 
East.  Some  people  who  have  had  wide  opportu- 
nities to  observe  the  system  in  both  parts  of  this 


/ 


244  The  College  Girl  of  America 

country,  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  while  it  is 
admirable  in  the  West  it  is  execrable  in  the  East. 
A  woman  who  has  been  dean  of  an  important  co- 
educational college  in  the  West,  and  is  now  dean 
of  another  coeducational  college  in  the  East,  says, 
feelingly :  "  I  am  a  strong  believer  in  coeducation, 
but  not  in  coeducation  as  it  exists  in  the  East.  I 
believe  in  coeducation  after  trying  it  for  twenty 
years.  I  recall  some  noble  men  and  women  it  has 
produced.  I  recall  some  true  homes  it  has  estab- 
lished, with  equal  respect  and  equal  rights  and  privi- 
leges between  husband  and  wife.  I  like  to  think 
of  the  sanity,  the  breadth  that  is  possible  to  coedu- 
cational institutions.  It  may  have  —  it  does  have 
—  disillusions,  but  they  are  wholesome.  Men  and 
women  come  to  know  one  another  well  when  thrown 
together  day  by  day;  genuine  manhood  and  true 
womanhood  rise  in  value  through  such  intercourse. 
The  young  women  refine  and  keep  pure  the  young 
men,  the  young  men  make  more  sensible  and 
thoughtful  the  young  women;  and  the  action  and 
reaction  are  alike  good.  But  it  requires  more  care, 
more  supervision,  more  personal  work,  to  develop 
men  and  women  together.-  It  is  easier  to  educate 
each  sex  apart. 

"  So  far  as  I  know,"  she  continues,  "  the  East 
has  never  tested  the  value  of  coeducation  in  a  large 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       245 

and  generous  fashion,  —  and  there  is  no  other  way 
to  find  out  its  value.  Having  never  truly  tested 
coeducation,  it  does  not  believe  in  it.  It  is  not  pre- 
pared to  know  its  value.  Where  it  exists  in  the 
East,  it  hedges  the  women  about,  and  is  itself  hedged 
about,  by  traditions.  But  in  the  free  West  it  has 
quite  a  different  history,  and  no  one  has  thought 
of  questioning  its  value  or  weighing  its  results,  for 
they  have  been  so  satisfactory  as  to  awaken  no  ques- 
tion." 

This  last  statement  is,  of  course,  not  quite  true, 
as  I  shall  endeavour  to  show  a  bit  further  on  in 
the  chapter.  Just  now,  however,  let  us  consider  that 
very  grave  weakness  of  coeducation  upon  which, 
albeit  unconsciously,  the  lady  just  quoted  put  her 
finger  at  once  when  she  said :  "  It  requires  more 
care,  more  supervision,  to  educate  men  and  women 
together."  Now  it  is  just  this  care  and  this 
supervision  which  is  almost  entirely  lacking  in 
many  of  the  large  Western  universities.  And 
as  a  result,  we  find  that  such  despatches  as  this  — 
founded  on  truth,  too  —  are  constantly  getting  into 
our  papers.  "  Morningside  College,  a  Methodist  in- 
stitution in  Sioux  City,  is  divided  in  factions  over 
a  question  of  the  rights  of  woman.  The  point  at 
issue  is  whether  a  *  co-ed  '  who  can  sprint  faster 
than  any  man  in  the  school  has  the  right  to  a  place 


246  The  College  Girl  of  America 

on  its  track  team  at  the  State  intercollegiate  field 
meet.  Morningside  possesses  a  sprinting  young 
woman,  who  at  the  field  trials  covered  a  fifty-yard 
dash  in  0.05 J4>  a  world's  record  for  a  woman.  The 
best  time  made  by  a  man  was  0.06.  The  *  co-eds/ 
therefore,  demand  to  know  why  their  representative 
should  not  go  to  the  State  meet,  where  they  are 
certain  she  would  beat  any  of  the  men  of  the  State 
colleges  in  the  fifty  and  one  hundred-yard  dashes." 
Over  against  such  an  instance  as  this  of  develop- 
ment in  an  unwomanly  direction  is,  however,  to  be 
placed  the  recent  compliment  paid  to  Chicago  Uni- 
versity "  co-eds  "  by  Doctor  Delbrueck,  the  famous 
German  philologist,  who,  with  four  other  German 
educators  from  leading  German  universities,  had 
been  closely  studying  the  life  of  women  in  Chicago. 
Doctor  Delbrueck,  looking  on  at  ':he  spectacle  of 
1,360  women  students  there,  remarked  with  un- 
questionable sincerity,  "  I  have  found  these  Amer- 
ican women  wonderfully  brilliant  and  as  wonder- 
fully beautiful."  Possibly  it  is  in  this  very  brilliancy 
and  beauty  that  the  explanation  of  Doctor  Harper's 
much-condemned  "  segregation  "  lies.  At  Chicago, 
as  at  very  many  other  coeducational  institutions,  the 
women  have  latterly  begun  to  outnumber  and  out- 
shine the  men.  The  last  report  gives  more  than 
thirteen  hundred  women  in  the  collegiate  depart- 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       247 

ment  here,  against  only  nine  hundred  men.  In  the 
University  of  CaHfornia,  on  the  other  hand,  latest 
reports  show  that  just  as  the  number  of  men  en- 
tering the  technical  colleges  has  increased,  the 
number  of  women  entering  the  arts  department  has 
decreased.  It  is  the  acknowledged  ideal  of  coedu- 
cation to  keep  the  sexes  balanced,  but  it  seems  well- 
nigh  impossible  of  attainment.\ 

To  be  sure,  there  are  still  enough  girls  at  Berke- 
ley, —  more  than  eleven  hundred,  —  and  the  prob- 
lem of  taking  care  of  them  properly  appears  a  suf- 
ficiently appalling  one.  President  Wheeler  in  his 
last  report  says  frankly  that  the  need  of  carefully 
organized  and  wisely  conducted  students'  homes 
for  the  girls  here  is  a  very  grave  one.  "  The  prob- 
lem of  where  and  how  the  women  students  shall 
live,  is  one  of  much  difficulty.  There  are  to-day 
more  women  students  in  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia than  in  any  other  institution  in  the  country 
which  provides  for  the  higher  education  of  women, 
with  the  single  exception  of  Smith.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  each  year,  three  hundred  or  more  young 
women  arrive  in  Berkeley  for  the  first  time,  usually 
alone,  and  unaccustomed  to  travel.  The  Y.  W.  C. 
A.  has  performed  an  invaluable  work  in  meeting 
students  and  aiding  newcomers  to  find  proper  homes 
through  its  salaried  secretary    [whose  entire  time 


248  The  College  Girl  of  America 

is  devoted  to  the  society's  work].  And  Mrs.  Hearst 
has  carried  through  a  most  interesting  experiment 
bearing  upon  the  problem  of  college  homes  for 
women  students.  [She  has  equipped  two  club- 
houses, in  each  of  which  dwell  fifteen  or  twenty 
girls,  and  a  house  mother,  which  have  been  ex- 
tremely successful,  as  have  likewise  the  eight  soror- 
ity houses.]  But  we  need  a  revolving  fund  which 
should  provide  for  the  original  furnishing  of  such 
women's  clubs  as  might  be  formed  from  time  to 
time.  Only  this  can  save  the  large  body  of  girls 
from  the  forlorn  lonesomeness  of  a  third-rate  board- 
ing-house.^* j 
How  forlorn  is  the  life  of  many  of  the  women 
students  at  the  University  of  California  may  be 
gathered  from  the  experience  of  some  girls  who 
are  working  their  way  through.  One  of  these, 
printed  in  the  last  biennial  report,  gives  an  ac- 
count of  a  third-year's  income.  Between  the  lines 
may  be  read  the  unrelieved  pinch  of  a  sordid  strug- 
gle with  life.  "  Hearst  domestic  industries,  ninety- 
six  dollars ;  teaching  and  other  work,  forty  dollars ; 
from  home,  twenty  dollars.  This  last  year  my  three 
younger  sisters  and  myself  have  kept  house.  Out 
a  way  from  town  we  found  two  large  unfurnished 
rooms  and  a  garret,  which  we  have  rented  at  four 
dollars  a  month.     We  have  lived  very  cheaply,  but 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       249 

I  do  not  recommend  housekeeping  unless  one  takes 
at  least  one  meal  a  day  out.  I  have  sewed  sixteen 
hours  a  week,  at  twenty  cents  an  hour,  at  the  Hearst 
Domestic  Industries." 

Mrs.  Phebe  Hearst  is  the  only  fairy  godmother 
of  the  girls  at  the  University  of  California.  She  has 
done  much  for  them,  but  much  still  remains  to  do. 
A  hall  named  in  her  honour  has  come  to  be  the  centre 
of  the  social  life  of  women  students.  Here  the 
girls  lunch  together;  here  hold  meetings,  concerts, 
receptions,  and  other  college  affairs.  Here,  too, 
is  a  superb  gymnasium,  an  enclosed  basket-ball 
court,  and  space  for  outside  basket-ball  games,  for 
archery,  and  for  open-air  work  in  physical  culture. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  hall  meets  a  very  real 
need.  But  it  by  no  means  does  all,  we  repeat,  that 
should  be  done  for  the  comfort  and  well-being  of 
this  vast  body  of  women  students. 

At  the  University  of  Minnesota,  which  has  more 
than  six  hundred  and  fifty  girl  students,  there  is  a 
very  pleasant  girl's  dormitory.  Situated,  as  the  col- 
lege is,  in  a  large  city,  the  life  is  naturally  not  so 
marked  as  in  towns  where  a  college  is  practically  the 
whole  thing,  but  there  are  a  large  number  of  sorori- 
ties at  the  university,  and  these  are  greatly  enjoyed 
by  their  members.  Yet,  since  less  than  one-half  of 
the  girls  belong  to  sororities,  a  picture  of  sorority 


250  The  College  Girl  of  America 

life  would  not  represent  truly  the  life  of  the  college 
girl.  Possibly  the  major  part  of  the  social  life  of 
the  young  women  here  is  associated  with  the  social 
life  of  the  city,  rather  than  with  that  of  the  college 
itself.  The  young  women  at  Minnesota  now  sus- 
tain their  college  work  about  as  young  men  do. 
When  the  scholarship  system  of  honour  was  in 
vogue,  they  captured  the  first  place  rather  more 
than  half  the  time. 

A  girl  often  makes  great  sacrifices  to  stay  on  at 
Minnesota.  The  expense  is  almost  nothing  (five  dol- 
lars is  the  university  fee),  but  inasmuch  as  many  of 
the  women  who  come  here  to  study  are  entirely, 
or  almost  entirely,  dependent  on  their  own  exer- 
tions for  means  of  living,  their  struggles  for  the 
sake  of  an  education  are  often  little  short  of  heroic. 
From  a  student's  note-book,  which  I  have  been  privi- 
leged to  see,  I  learn  of  one  Minnesota  girl  who 
entered  college  with  fifty  cents,  put  herself  through 
the  first  year,  paying  all  her  bills  with  scarcely  nine 
dollars  from  home,  and  ended  with  one  dollar  and 
ten  cents  on  hand. 

"  Fifty  cents  is  the  sum  total  of  my  wealth," 
she  writes  the  first  of  September,  "  and  I  must  rely 
upon  selling  a  beautiful  five-dollar  book  for  my 
entrance  fee.     Yesterday  I  went  out  with  it,  but 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       251 

met  no  success,  although  every  one  was  kind  and 
sympathetic.  September  4th.  The  whole  week  has 
been  one  of  hoping,  despairing,  praying.  I  have 
not  sold  my  book,  and  so  could  not  register.  At 
last,  in  despair,  I  went  to  the  noblest-hearted  pro- 
fessor of  the  university,  and  told  her  my  pitiful 
tale.  Her  great  woman  heart  opened  wide  and 
took  me  in.  She  didn't  eye  me  suspiciously,  won- 
dering if  I  were  an  impostor;  she  didn't  drop  the 
matter  with  mere  regrets  because  she  herself  was 
unable  to  buy  the  book.  No,  indeed!  She  took 
the  book  and  sold  it  for  me!  I  shall  never  forget 
the  unselfish  light  which  illuminated  her  counte- 
nance, and  the  hearty  handshake  as  she  triumphantly 
exclaimed,  '  The  book  is  sold.  You  may  register.'  " 
The  particular  means  this  girl  adopted,  besides 
canvassing,  was  housework.  She  writes  that  it 
was  her  custom  to  read  Browning  while  wash- 
ing dishes,  and  to  brace  herself,  when  turned  coldly 
away  in  the  course  of  her  peddling,  by  repeating: 

•*  Then  welcome  each  rebuff 

That  turns  earth's  smoothness  rough, 

Each  sting  which  bids  nor  sit,  nor  stand,  but  go  ! 

Be  thy  joy  three  parts  pain, 

Strive  and  hold  cheap  the  strain, 

Learn,  nor  account  the  pang ;  dare,  never  grudge  the  throe." 


252 


The  College  Girl  of  America 


The  financial   report  of  this  particular  student 
is  so  interesting  that  it  is  given  here: 


RECEIPTS 


On  hand  Sept.  i 
Canvassing 
Journal  Xmas  tree 
Child  tending  . 
Sundries  . 
Extra  nurse  work 

Total  earned 
From  papa 
Loan 


SO 


$8  00 

I  88 

90 

37 
I  50 


12  65 
8  25 
2  45 

$23  85 


DISBURSEMENTS 

University  fee $  5  00 

Books 2  86 

Clothing 5  61 

Carfare 60 

Postage I  37 

Board  and  room 3  28 

Contributions  and  gifts    ....  2  00 

Sundries 2  ©3 

%^^  75 

Cash  on  hand i   10 


$23  85 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       253 

Generally  speaking,  housework  is  held  to  be  the 
best  way  for  a  girl  to  work  her  passage  through 
college.  One  wonders  how  this  Minnesota  maiden 
was  able  to  stand  the  strain  of  it  all,  but  inasmuch 
as  she  gained  ten  pounds  in  the  course  of  the  year, 
we  may  conclude  that  she  did  not  really  work  too 
hard.  Of  the  experience  she  herself  records  at  the 
year's  end :  "  My  most  valuable  lessons  have  not 
been  learned  from  books.  I  have  battled  with  the 
great  living  world,  and  will  henceforth  meet  it  with 
bolder  courage.  I  have  been  learning  to  endure 
drudgery  as  an  essential  part  of  success  in  every 
vocation.  I  am  learning  to  vanquish  opposition 
from  without ;  fears,  sensitiveness,  a  myriad  of  evils 
from  within.  I  am  learning  to  know  myself,  my 
frailties,  but  my  possibilities,  also.  This  year,  there- 
fore, shall  always  be  catalogued  as  one  of  great 
blessing."  With  women  of  such  spirit  as  this  to 
renew  the  land,  America  is  certainly  still  a  long 
way  from  becoming  "  effete." 

At  the  University  of  Michigan  the  question  of 
controlling  the  social  life  of  the  women  seems  to 
be  fairly  well  settled,  thanks  to  the  new  women's 
building  (or  Barbour  Gymnasium,  as  it  is  inter- 
changeably called)  and  the  close  and  sympathetic 
attention  of  the  women's  dean  to  the  needs  of  her 
girls.     This  university's  present  ideal  for  women 


254  The  College  Girl  of  America 

students  has  been  evolved  from  three  decades  of 

coeducation.     When   Michigan's   doors   wert  first 

opened  to  women,  all  who  came  were  there  for 

study,  for  work.     But  with  the  growing  popularity 

of  education  for  women,  and  with  the  prosperity 

of  the  middle  West,  the  "  boarding-school  type " 

of  girl  has  come  on  the  scene.     This  girl  needs  to 

be  made  to  study,  and  needs,  too,  a  considerable 

number  of  rules  laid  down  for  the  guidance  of  her 

(  student  life.     Because  of  the  presence  of  this  new 

\type,  the  women's  building,  where  the  present  dean 

pas  her  official  headquarters,  is  of  particular  value. 

/All  social  affairs  are  held  in  this  building,  and  the 

Ihours  of  its  use  are  controlled.     A  limit  of  twelve 

p  clock  is  fixed  for  the  close  of  all  entertainments, 

,  and  the  women's  dean  is  always  present  at  whatever 

festivities  college  girls  give. 

Thus  the  social  life  of  Michigan  University  has 
latterly  attained  a  distinctly  higher  tone  than  it 
has  sometimes  had  in  the  past.  The  tuition  fee  at 
Michigan,  by  the  bye,  is  thirty  dollars  for  girls 
resident  in  the  State,  and  forty  dollars  for  all  others. 
There  are  no  dormitories  and  no  commons  con- 
nected with  the  university. 

The  University  of  Nebraska  is  another  very  im- 
portant institution  of  the  West.  Its  women  stu- 
dents alone  number  six  hundred.    Here,  too,  there 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       255 

are  no  houses  of  residence,  all  that  is  done  to  make 
life  gracious  and  easy  for  the  girls  being  accom- 
plished through  the  Young  Women's  Christian 
Association,  which  has,  in  the  basement  of  Uni- 
versity Hall,  a  pleasant  room,  always  open  to  mem- 
bers and  their  friends.  A  woman's  parlour  and 
rest-room  for  girl  students  of  the  college  and  a 
room  "  where  ladies  may  lunch  "  seems  to  complete 
the  provision  here  made  for  girl  students  as  such. 
Nebraska  girls  have,  however,  their  own  gymnastic 
director,  their  own  social  clubs,  and  their  own  ath- 
letic interests.  And  if  one  may  judge  from  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  representative  basket-ball  team,  the 
university  produces  a  very  vigorous  type  of  girl. 

At  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University,  in  Palo 
Alto,  California,  the  social  need  inherent  in  coedu- 
cation has  been  very  frankly  recognized,  if  one  may 
judge  from  an  admirable  editorial  contributed  to  the 
woman's  edition  of  the  Daily  Palo  Alto  by  a  college 
girl :  "  Rightly  or  wrongly,"  this  young  woman  de- 
clares, "  the  world  demands  of  the  college  woman 
a  criterion  of  action.  She  must  be  able  to  set  it. 
Just  as  the  world  exacts  of  the  college  man  that  he 
shall  a  little  more  than  hold  his  own  in  business 
circles,  so*  it  looks  to  the  college  woman  for  leader- 
ship and  savoir-faire  in  all  circles.  How  and  when 
she  acquire  the  ability  to  lead  and  do  is  left  to  her, 


2S6  The  College  Girl  of  America 

but  have  it  she  must.  Since  it  is  a  thing  that  can  be 
mastered  only  by  practice,  opportunity  to  so  attain 
it  should  be  afforded  her.  Since  it  is  demanded 
of  her  because  she  is  a  college  woman,  that  train- 
ing should  be  given  her  by  her  college.  The  Stan- 
ford girl  must  have  social  training.-  Book-lore  alone 
does  not  answer.  Surely  the  need  must  be  imper- 
ative when  an  *  upper  class  woman '  cries  out  in 
abnegation  of  spirit :  *  If  only  there  were  offered 
at  Stanford  a  course  in  genuine  good  breeding ! ' 
What  that  girl  longed  for  was  not  more  receptions, 
—  which  too  often  are  a  mockery  of  true  social 
intercourse,  and  a  shallow  form  we  hold  to  from 
sheer  lack  of  courage  to  let  go ;  not  more  balls,  — 
most  of  which  we  attend  merely  to  demonstrate 
publicly  that  we  have  been  invited;   not  even  more 

*  spreads,'  —  which  are  apt  to  degenerate  into  mere 

*  feeds.'  What  she  wanted  was  real  social  expe- 
rience to  prepare  her  to  go  into  the  world  a  woman 
educated  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word." 

With  the  promptness  to  meet  needs  that  is  char- 
acteristic of  Leland  Stanford,  a  Woman's  League 
has  recently  been  organized,  under  the  leadership 
of  Mrs.  Jordan,  and  is  now  doing  a  great  deal  to 
bring  the  women  of  the  university  into  closer  social 
contact.  Of  other  organizations  there  are  a  large 
number  at  Stanford,  so  that  no  girl  who  wishes 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       257 

to  develop  in  one  or  another  direction  need  lack  for 
opportunity.  A  vigorous  branch  of  the  Christian 
Association,  several  sororities,  with  houses  of  their 
own,  Roble,  a  beautiful  residence  house,  and  diverse 
boarding-clubs,  all  contribute  to  the  life  which  makes 
Stanford  what  it  is.  Almost  five  hundred  girls  are 
now  sharing  that  life,  and  living  up  with  what 
distinction  they  can  command  to  the  spirit  Mrs. 
Stanford  invoked  when  she  said :  "  I  would  have 
each  one  of  my  girls  remember  that  she  exerts  an 
influence  extending  far  beyond  her  conception,  and 
I  pray  that  it  will  be  for  good  always ;  and  I  would 
have  her  realize  she  can  use  it  for  the  good  of  her 
university  in  a  constant  endeavour  to  uphold  the 
Stanford  standard  of  honesty,  sincerity,  and  truth 
in  all  things.  This  is  her  duty,  and  I  would  have 
her  meet  it  seriously  and  willingly.  I  would  have 
the  Stanford  girl  womanly  in  the  highest,  sweetest 
sense  of  the  word.  I  would  have  her  enjo^t-to  the 
fullest  her  equal  privileges  here  with  gentle  dignity, 
respecting  herself,  and  making  all  with  whom  she 
comes  in  contact  respect  her.  Finally,  above  all 
else,  I  would  have  her  go  out  into  the  world  a  noble 
Christian  woman  who  will  stand  for  something  seri- 
ous in  life,  and  always  be  a  credit  to  Stanford." 

Few    Western    universities    are    more    beautiful 
than  that  in  Madison,  Wisconsin,  the  privileges  of 


258  The  College  Girl  of  America 

which  are  entirely  free  to  girls  of  the  State.  The 
grounds  comprise  three  hundred  acres,  and  extend 
for  more  than  a  mile  along  the  south  shore  of 
Lake  Mendota,  a  large  and  imposing  sheet  of  water, 
from  the  eastern  part  of  which  the  land  rises 
abruptly  into  two  summits.  On  the  slope  of  one 
of  these  is  the  college  plant.  The  single  dormitory 
for  young  women  at  this  university  is  Chadbourne 
Hall,  built  in  1870,  and  remodelled  and  enlarged 
in  1896,  but  the  life  of  girl  students  is  broad 
and  many-sided,  inasmuch  as  two  literary  societies, 
—  Castalia,  established  near  the  beginning  of  the 
university,  and  Pythia,  formed  this  last  year,  — 
as  well  as  several  small  clubs,  are  maintained.  The 
women  have  organized,  too,  a  self-government 
association,  and  a  prosperous  branch  of  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association.  Gymnastic  exer- 
cises are  required  at  Wisconsin  during  the  first  two 
years  of  the  course.  The  "  gym  "  (in  one  part  of 
Chadbourne  Hall)  has  connected  with  it  tennis  and 
cycling  clubs,  and  there  is  practice  in  such  games 
as  basket-ball,  newcombe,  and  basquette.  The  resi- 
dence hall  accommodates  ninety  students,  and  is 
furnished  with  everything  necessary  to  comfort. 
The  girls  occupying  the  building  are  under  the 
immediate  charge  of  the  mistress  of  the  hall,  and 
are  required  to  board  there.    The  cost  of  the  table 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       259 

accommodation  is  three  dollars  and  seventy-five 
cents  a  week,  the  price  of  rooms  varying  from  forty 
to  ninety-five  dollars  a  year,  according  to  location. 
Reasonable  as  these  charges  seem,  they  are,  of 
course,  tremendous  to  girls  who  have  no  money 
at  all.  And  at  Wisconsin  such  girls  are  not  rare; 
we  hear  again  and  again  of  tremendous  self-sacri- 
fice for  the  sake  of  an  education.  Two  girls  of 
whom  I  know  were  able  to  live  on  one  dollar  a 
week  here,  paying  fifty  cents  each  for  their  room 
and  fifty  cents  each  for  their  food.  The  latter  con- 
sisted of  corn-meal  and  oatmeal,  eggs,  —  when  these 
were  cheap,  —  and  stale  bread,  with  a  half  a  pint 
of  milk  daily.  One  of  the  girls  has  said,  with  a 
keen  appreciation  of  the  humourous  side  of  the 
matter,  that  semioccasionally  they  would  purchase 
a  cheap  piece  of  steak,  cut  it  in  exactly  two  parts 
(of  which  half  would  be  laid  away  until  the  next 
day),  and  dine  sumptuously  upon  the  remaining 
half  equally  divided.  To  earn  the  dollar  a  week 
of  their  college  expense  these  girls  taught  school 
in  Dakota  during  the  summer.  And  inasmuch  as 
they  had  intellectual  ability,  as  well  as  grit,  their 
sacrifices  have  paid;  they  are  now  teachers  of 
Latin,  drawing  good  salaries.  Such  self-denial  is 
a  tragedy,  of  course,  only  in  the  cases  —  and  they 
are  not  so  rare  as  they  ought  to  be  —  of  girls  who. 


26o  The  College  Girl  of  America 

after  all  this  anguish  in  getting  an  education,  are 
unable  to  "  improve "  what  they  have  acquired. 

At  Indiana  University  the  incoming  girl  student 
presents  her  credentials  at  once  to  a  dean  of  women 
who  makes  her  feel  at  home  and  helps  her  to  find 
herself.  Most  of  the  students  here  lodge  in  private 
houses  and  board  in  clubs.  The  cost  naturally 
varies  greatly  with  the  way  of  living.  But  in  the 
present  student  body  close  economy  is  the  rule. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  the  free  tuition,  the  average  expense 
is  apt  to  be  about  two  hundred  dollars  a  year. 
There  is  a  good  deal  of  social  life  at  Indiana,  in 
which  both  men  and  women  have  a  share,  as  well 
as  many  interests  peculiar  to  the  girls  alone.  Ama- 
teur theatricals  have  always  been  encouraged  at 
this  university,  both  by  the  student  body  and  faculty, 
and  for  the  past  seven  years  an  annual  play  has 
been  presented  on  Foundation  Day,  in  which  any 
student  possessing  dramatic  ability  might  take  part. 
Formerly  these  plays,  under  the  efficient  direction 
of  Prof.  Martin  Wright  Sampson,  were  Shake- 
spearian, and  were  given  without  scenery  —  de- 
pending upon  the  interpretation  to  please  the 
audiences.  Out  of  this  annual  performance  has 
now  grown  the  Strut  and  Fret  Club,  which  presents 
three  public  and  six  private  plays  each  college  year, 
and    has    ten    women    and    fifteen    men    on    its 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       261 

membership  list.  In  basket-ball  the  girls  of  In- 
diana find  an  outlet  for  their  athletic  enthusiasm, 
and  the  sororities  and  social  clubs  present  oppor- 
tunity for  pleasant  friendly  intercourse.  The 
women's  gymnasium,  Mitchell  Hall,  has  all  equip- 
ment necessary  to  exercise,  as  well  as  two  well- 
shaded  tennis-courts  for  the  use  of  girls.  On  the 
first  floor  of  Kirkwood  Hall,  a  noble  building  of 
white  limestone,  the  Christian  Association  provides 
a  waiting-room  for  the  especial  accommodation  of 
women  students.  Thus,  though  Indiana  lacks  the 
dormitories,  which  it  is  undoubtedly  well  for  a 
coeducational  university  to  provide  for  its  girls, 
there  seems  to  be  fairly  adequate  provision  for  the 
comfort  and  gracious  social  life  of  women  students. 
Yet,  after  all,  it  is  the  personality  of  the  dean 
even  more  than  the  attitude  of  the  university 
toward  women  which  determines  whether  a  girl 
shall  or  shall  not  find  in  a  given  college  what  she 
needs  to  make  her  undergraduate  life  sweet  and 
noble.  The  University  of  Illinois  is  superlatively 
attractive  in  both  these  directions.  The  dean.  Miss 
Violet  Jayne,  is  in  close  touch  with  her  girls,  all 
of  whom  like  her  greatly,  and  women  are  very 
welcome  on  the  campus.  Apart  from  the  frater- 
nities, clubs,  and  societies,  which  often  foster  cliques 
while  they  encourage  friendship,  this  university  has 


262  The  College  Girl  of  America 

an  important  organization  called  the  Watcheka 
League,  which  especially  seeks  to  afford  opportu- 
nities for  all  the  girls  to  become  acquainted.  To 
this  every  woman  student  is  eligible.  The  league 
gives  six  or  eight  parties  during  the  year,  in  one 
or  another  of  the  university  buildings;  the  modesi 
of  entertainment  are  various,  including  chafing-disljj 
parties,  costume-parties,  dancing-parties,  picnics] 
and  once  a  year  —  when  the  girls  may  invite  their 
men  friends  —  a  play.  The  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association,  too,  gives  a  large  number  of 
social  affairs  in  the  Association  House  just  opposite 
the  campus,  the  entertainment  here  consisting  gen- 
erally of  games  and  music,  especially  college  sing- 
ing. Then  the  girls  who  are  taking  gymnasium 
work  (largely  freshmen  and  sophomores)  are  per- 
mitted to  give,  under  the  direction  of  their  in- 
structor, one  or  two  dancing-parties  in  the  gym- 
nasium during  the  year,  each  girl  being  allowed 
to  have  one  man  friend  invited.  University  affairs, 
too,  —  not  strictly  of  a  social  nature,  —  contribute 
much  to  college  spirit;  for  example,  the  May-pole 
Dance,  given  every  spring  by  the  gymnasium  girls 
on  the  spacious  south  campus;  the  singing  of  col- 
lege songs  by  scores  or  hundreds  of  students  to- 
gether out-of-doors,  sitting  on  the  grass,  when  the 
spring  days  become  warm  enough;    the  convoca- 


ff^^ ^%      ^^^^ 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       263 

tions  for  which  the  whole  student  body  is  requested 
to  assemble  to  hear  something  the  president  has 
to  say,  or  to  listen  to  some  distinguished  visitor; 
also  the  baseball  and  football  games,  at  which  the 
girls  seek  to  do  their  share  toward  spurring  the 
Illinois  team  on  to  victory. 

The  majority  of  the  girls  at  Illinois  room  and 
board  in  private  houses,  but  about  seventy-five  of 
them  live  in  the  houses  of  the  five  sororities.  The 
university  exercises  no  direct  authority  over  the 
home  life  of  students,  and  has  only  one  regulation 
for  their  social  life,  i.  c,  the  dancing-parties  shall 
not  occur  save  on  Friday  or  Saturday  evenings. 
Beginning  next  year,  however,  there  will  probably 
be  a  much  more  carefully  organized  social  life. 
For  the  new  woman's  building,  which  will  provide 
a  spacious  general  meeting-room  and  other  social 
rooms,  a  fine  gymnasium,  with  dressing-rooms, 
lockers,  baths,  and  a  swimming-pool,  will  then  be 
in  use.  It  is  confidently  predicted  that  this  will  be 
the  most  charming  and  useful  building  ever  given 
over  exclusively  to  the  use  of  women  "  co-eds."  In 
this  new  structure  —  built  after  the  New  England 
Colonial  style  of  architecture  —  will  be  supplied 
also  ample  accommodations  for  the  household 
science  department    (one  of  the  most  important 


264  The  College  Girl  of  America 

branches  of  this  university),  which  is  now  in  the 
fourth  very  successful  year  of  its  history. 

Student  hfe  at  IlHnois  is  free,  democratic,  and 
healthful.  The  aim  is  to  make  women  out  of  the 
college  girls  who  come  here,  women  who  shall  be 
sane  and  true  and  tolerant  and  useful  in  the  home 
and  in  the  State.  The  university  cherishes  culture, 
but  it  knows  that  any  culture  worth  having  must 
come  through  work.  It  proclaims,  therefore,  that 
it  particularly  wants  the  favour  and  the  patronage 
of  the  thrifty.  No  girl  who  is  earnest  and  has  the 
preparation  which  the  high  schools  can  give  ever 
knocks  at  the  door  of  Illinois  University  in  vain. 
The  Young  Woman's  Christian  Association  con- 
ducts a  free  labour  bureau  which  helps  students  to 
find  work  for  the  defraying  of  part  of  their  ex- 
penses. And  since  the  fees  here  are  but  twelve 
dollars  a  semester,  and  the  average  student  need 
not  spend  more  than  two  hundred  dollars  upon  liv- 
ing expenses,  many  girls  are  able  almost  to  support 
themselves. 

(^Under  the  able  presidency  of  Dr.  Howard  Ayres, 
the  University  of  Cincinnati  has  during  late  years 
attained  high  intellectual  standing  in  the  West.) 
And  that  its  young  people  are  very  happy  in  their 
social  activities  —  the  girls  no  less  than  the  men  — 
one  must  conclude  from  undergraduate  life  as  re- 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       265 

fleeted  in  the  year-books  of  the  university  and  in 
the  college's  good  times.  There  are  several  sorori- 
ties here,  a  German  club  and  a  comedy  club,  to 
which  both  girls  and  men  belong,  as  well  as  a  girls' 
glee-club,  and  numerous  small  fellowships. 

That  the  students  of  this  university  are  possessed 
of  that  invaluable  thing,  a  sense  of  humour,  is 
shown  in  the  following  skit,  "  How  to  write  an 
English  13  Story,"  which  could  have  come  only 
from  the  pen  of  a  girl :  "  I.  Lay  the  scene  if 
possible  in  the  country;  the  shorter  the  story  the 
more  countrified  the  place.  II.  Embellish  the  walls 
of  the  house,  and  at  the  same  time  your  story,  with 
ancestral  portraits ;  frames  are  a  necessity,  though 
they  may  be  tarnished.  III.  The  heroine  must 
be  ugly ;  try  to  introduce  freckles ;  remember  Jane 
Eyre  (N.  B.  Not  written  by  a  member  of  the 
class).  IV.  The  hero  must  be  a  prig;  if  he  has 
any  faults  they  must  be  perceived  by  no  one  but 
the  heroine,  who  is  near-sighted  and  will  overlook 
them.  V.  Children  are  a  luxury;  this  gives  a 
lifelike  tone.  VI.  Notes  and  full  explanations  of 
all  foreign  words  and  phrases,  whether  explained 
by  the  context  or  not,  must  be  given;  place  such 
notes  in  as  prominent  a  position  as  possible.  VII. 
The  use  of  the  first  person  is  advisable;  this  gives 
the  necessary  idea  of  conceit.    VIII.  Try  to  secure 


266  The  College  Girl  of  America 

an  autobiographical  tone,  as  in  *  The  Owner  of 
the  Gas-Mills,'  or  *  Life  in  High  Society,  by  a 
Member  of  the  Royal  Family.'  " 

At  the  University  of  Iowa,  as  at  Cincinnati, 
special  provision  is  made  for  the  comfort  and  wel- 
fare of  the  young  women  through  the  offices  of 
a  woman  dean,  who  recommends  boarding  and  lodg- 
ing places,  sees  that  students  who  are  ill  while  away 
from  home  are  put  under  proper  care,  assists,  as 
far  as  possible,  young  women  who  wish  to  earn 
their  way  through  college,  corresponds  with  parents 
who  desire  to  make  inquiries  regarding  their  daugh- 
ters, takes  an  interest  in  the  women's  organizations, 
and  is  ready  to  make  any  suggestions  that  seem 
to  her  to  be  for  the  good  of  all.  The  homes  to 
which  she  sends  girls  are  always  those  which  have 
already  been  carefully  inspected.  A  small  special 
gymnasium  for  women  has  been  fitted  up  on  the 
ground  floor  of  the  Hall  of  Liberal  Arts  here,  and 
an  expert  gymnastic  instructor  is  provided  espe- 
cially for  women  students.  Iowa,  however,  has  no 
very  rich  social  life  for  its  girls,  inasmuch  as  it 
lacks  dormitories  and  commons.  The  tuition  is 
twenty-five  dollars  a  year,  board  and  lodging  m 
private  houses  being  obtainable  for  from  three  to 
five  dollars  a  week.  To  aid  those  girls  who  must 
support  themselves,  the  Young  Women's  Christian 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       267 

Association  conducts  a  free  labour  bureau,  and,  in- 
asmuch as  Iowa  City  is  a  town  of  eight  thousand 
inhabitants,  whose  citizens  are  friendly  to  the  uni- 
versity, and  take  pleasure  in  affording  to  deserving 
students  the  opportunity  to  earn  their  necessary 
expenses,  it  rarely  happens  that  a  girl  who  needs 
help  fails  to  secure  steady  employment  of  some 
kind.  During  the  past  year,  indeed,  the  demand 
for  student  help  was  greater  than  the  supply. 

The  officers  of  Kansas  State  University  never 
miss  an  opportunity  to  express  their  appreciation 
of  the  vast  benefits  the  presence  of  women  have 
conferred  upon  their  institution.  "  The  far  larger 
devotion  to  the  claims  of  society,  the  large  measure 
of  freedom  from  certain  sorts  of  fun-making,  the 
more  uncertain  hold  of  athletic  sports,  are  some 
of  the  more  obvious  results  of  the  coeducational 
constitution  of  this  university,"  a  recent  faculty 
member  has  recorded.  The  fraternity  has  been  by 
far  the  most  important  unit  within  this  university. 
Kansas's  social  life  cannot,  indeed,  be  considered 
apart  from  these  societies,  for  it  has  centred  in  them. 
The  intensity  of  this  social  life  varies,  of  course, 
from  year  to  year,  and  from  fraternity  to  fraternity 
(there  are  six  to  which  men  alone  belong,  and  three 
especially  for  girls),  but  as  a  rule  each  fraternity 
intends    to    have    two    considerable    social    events 


268  The  College  Girl  of  America 

during  the  year.  These  have  usually  taken  the 
form  of  evening  parties,  with  dancing  and  refresh- 
ments. More  rarely  have  these  events  been  in  the 
shape  of  formal  dinners  or  suppers,  with  toasts,  and 
perhaps  some  musical  or  literary  figure.  The  faculty 
does  little  at  Kansas  to  influence  or  direct  the  social 
life  of  the  students,  though  it  is  often  represented 
at  social  gatherings.  The  one  affair  to  which  all 
members  of  the  university  are  welcome,  whether 
fraternity  people  or  not,  is  the  university  ball. 
This  has  never  yet  established  itself  as  the  regular 
social  event  of  the  year,  which  it  might  well  become, 
but  there  is  considerable  probability  that  it  may 
soon  so  develop. 

Nature  has  done  much  for  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity. Extending  for  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
along  Lake  Michigan,  in  the  beautiful  city  of  Evans- 
ton,  two  miles  north  of  Chicago's  extreme  limit,  its 
campus  is  covered  for  the  greater  part  with  a  dense 
growth  of  virgin  oak-trees,  famous  for  their 
beauty.  The  buildings  are  many  and  attractive, 
special  provision  being  made  for  the  comfortable 
housing  of  girl  students.  The  freshman,  when  she 
enters,  is  guided  at  once  by  a  representative  of  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association  to  Willard 
Hall,  so  named  in  honour  of  Evanston's  most 
famous  citizen,  Frances  Willard,  who  was  for  sev- 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       269 

era!  years  dean  of  the  women's  college.  This  build- 
ing forms  a  pleasant  home  for  young  ladies,  and 
stands  just  one  block  to  the  west  of  the  main 
campus  entrance  on  a  spacious  lot  of  its  own.  Life 
here  is  under  the  immediate  oversight  of  a  dean 
who  lives  in  the  building,  and  associates  with  the 
residents  as  a  friend  and  adviser. 

If  the  woman  student  at  Northwestern  be  so 
situated  that  she  needs  to  economize  and  work  her 
way  in  part,  she  will  direct  her  steps  to  Pearsons 
Hall,  a  modest  but  very  homelike  building,  standing 
directly  across  the  street  from  Willard  Hall,  where 
seventy  young  women,  by  caring  for  their  own 
rooms,  doing  the  dining-room  work,  and  so  on, 
reduce  the  cost  of  their  room  and  board  to  a  figure 
but  little  above  the  price  of  their  provisions  in 
bulk.  Or  the  newcomer  may  be  led  to  Chapin  Hall, 
a  fine  new  dormitory  for  women,  erected  two  years 
ago,  where  conditions  are  similar  to  those  prevailing 
in  Pearsons  Hall.  All  women  students  not  residents 
of  Evanston  are  required  to  room  in  one  of  these 
three  halls,  unless  specifically  excused  by  a  faculty 
committee  of  oversight;  and  all  women  students, 
whether  rooming  in  the  halls  or  elsewhere,  are 
directly  subject  to  the  oversight  of  women.  Very 
sensible  limitations  have  been  imposed  upon  the 
social   life  here.     In  the  interest  of  the  college 


270  The  College  Girl  of  America 

community  the  faculty  has  adopted  a  regulation  that 
no  organization  or  group  of  students  shall  hold  in 
any  year  more  than  one  party  or  social  entertain- 
ment at  which  both  ladies  and  gentlemen  are  present. 
Previous  permission  must  in  all  cases  be  obtained 
from  the  committee  on  social  affairs,  and  such  parties 
shall  close  not  later  than  eleven  o'clock. 

About  the  lowest  sum  for  which  it  is  possible  to 
get  through  a  year  at  Northwestern  University  is 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars.  The  college 
is  distinctly  and  positively  Christian,  it  is  worth 
noting,  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  women  and  seventy- 
two  per  cent,  of  the  men  in  the  undergraduate  body 
being  church-members.  The  charter  provides,  how- 
ever (in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity was  founded  by  Methodists),  that  "  no  par- 
ticular religious  faith  shall  be  required  of  those 
who'  become  students." 

Oberlin  College  has  been  characterized  as  the 
"  strongest  Christian  force  between  the  Hudson  and 
Lake  Michigan."  Probably  this  is  no  exaggeration. 
Certainly  an  educational  institution  bom  in  the  way 
this  one  was  should  be  a  Christian  force.  The 
story  of  the  founding  of  this  college  is  full  of 
colour  and  interest.  More  than  seventy  years  ago 
two  young  men  who  had  been  boys  together  in  a 
Vermont  village  determined  to  establish  in  the  West 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       271 

a  Christian  colony  which  should  be  the  environment 
of  a  Christian  college.  They  had  no  money  and 
very  little  influence,  nothing-,  indeed,  except  faith 
in  the  value  of  their  idea.  One  of  them,  Philo  P. 
Stewart,  had  been  a  missionary  to  the  Choctaw 
Indians  in  Mississippi ;  the  other,  John  J.  Shipard, 
had  for  two  years  been  pastor  of  a  new  settle- 
ment at  Elyria,  Ohio.  The  one  thing  clear  to  them 
both  was  the  need  of  just  such  an  enterprise  as 
they  were  determined  to  execute.  In  search  of 
a  suitable  location  for  their  colony  and  college,  the 
two  friends  rode  eight  miles  southwest  from  Elyria 
into  the  primitive  forest.  There  they  knelt  in 
prayer  under  an  elm-tree  which  still  stands  at  the 
southeast  corner  of  the  college  campus.  From  their 
prayer,  and  from  the  sturdy  devotion  with  which 
they  reinforced  it,  grew  the  college.  There  had 
recently  been  published  in  this  country  an  account 
of  the  self-sacrificing  life  of  John  Frederick  Ober- 
lin,  a  German  pastor  among  the  poor  French  and 
German  population  of  the  valley  on  the  borders  of 
Alsace  and  Lorraine.  His  spirit  and  achievements 
seemed  so  like  those  which  were  desired  for  the 
new  colony  that  his  name  was  given  to  it  by  the 
founders. 

Soon  after  choosing  his  local  habitation  and  his 
name,    Mr.    Shipard    rode   on   horseback   to    New 


272  The  College  Girl  of  America 

England  (taking  two  weeks  for  the  journey),  to 
bargain  for  the  land  he  wanted  and  to  secure  colo- 
nists suitable  to  his  purpose.  The  next  spring,  on 
April  19,  1833,  the  first  colonist  arrived  with  his 
family,  and  moved  into  a  log  house  which  he  had 
erected  near  the  historic  elm.  Others  followed,  and, 
on  December  3d  of  the  same  year,  eleven  families 
were  on  the  ground  and  the  school  was  opened 
with  forty-four  pupils.  The  number  increased  to 
one  hundred  and  one  the  following  summer,  and 
four  young  men  were  regularly  classified  as  fresh- 
men. The  venture  grew  wonderfully,  so  much  so 
that  a  year  and  a  half  after  its  opening  the  college 
was  organized  in  all  departments,  having  thirty- 
five  students  in  the  theological  seminary,  and  thirty- 
eight  in  the  college.  In  recent  years  the  average 
student  attendance  has  been  about  thirteen  hundred, 
of  which  a  fair  proportion  are  women.  From 
the  very  first,  indeed,  Oberlin  has  stood  for  the 
coeducation  of  the  sexes.  The  original  circular  sent 
out  from  here  proclaimed  this  principle,  and  of  the 
forty-four  students  present  at  the  opening  fifteen 
were  young  women.  From  the  very  first,  too, 
Oberlin  has  endeavoured  to  meet  the  needs  of  every 
one  —  of  those  who  must  practise  extreme  economy, 
as  well  as  of  those  who  can  spend  freely.  It  has 
to-day  five  boarding-halls,  with  a  wide  variety  of 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       273 

expense  and  style  of  living".  Keep  Home  provides 
opportunities  for  self-supporting  young  women  to 
board  —  doing  a  good  deal  of  their  own  service  — 
at  from  forty  to  sixty  cents  a  week.  Stewart  Hall 
is  designed  for  those  who  wish  at  a  moderate  price 
good  substantial  food  without  the  more  expensive 
luxuries.  Board  and  room  are  here  supplied  to 
a  girl  for  $2.25  a  week.  Lord  Cottage  furnishes 
a  home  for  about  forty  young  women  at  $3.50 
a  week,  while  at  Talcott  Hall  and  Baldwin  Cottage 
the  price  varies,  according  to  the  location  and  size 
of  the  room,  from  something  over  four  to  almost 
six  dollars  a  week,  including  board,  fuel,  and  light. 
The  total  charges  for  tuition  and  incidentals  are 
seventy-five  dollars  a  year  at  Oberlin.  Thus  students 
who  wish  to  devote  all  their  time  to  college  work, 
without  being  hampered  by  having  to  earn  any 
part  of  their  necessary  expenses,  need  only  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  a  year;  and  few 
girls  find  it  necessary  to  spend  more  than  three 
hundred  dollars  a  year,  even  though  having  all  the 
comforts  of  college  life.  Traditions  and  public 
sentiment  all  favour  the  self-helping  students  and 
discourage  every  sort  of  extravagance. 

Life  in  Oberlin,  while  quiet  and  simple,  abounds 
in  healthful  student  enthusiasms.  Whenever  the 
girls  want  anything  not  easy  of  immediate  attain- 


274  The  College  Girl  of  America 

ment,  they  work  for  it.  Recently  they  polished 
shoes,  darned  stockings,  sold  violets,  and  painted 
posters  to  earn  money  with  which  to  enclose  a  much- 
needed  basket-ball  court.  The  social  life  is  under 
the  oversight  of  a  dean,  who  looks  carefully  after 
the  interests  of  all  girl  students.  Saturday  is  regular 
recreation  evening,  and  by  limiting  the  number  of 
small  and  unimportant  entertainments,  and  improv- 
ing the  character  of  several  regular  gatherings  of 
the  students,  a  growing  sense  for  social  forms, 
most  gratifying  to  the  faculty,  has  recently  been 
developed.  The  students  for  all  departments  meet 
for  prayers  in  the  college  chapel  every  day  except 
Mondays  at  eleven-thirty.  And,  in  addition,  one 
Thursday  each  month  at  four,  in  the  same  place,  a 
lecture  is  delivered  by  some  member  of  the  faculty 
or  by  some  invited  speaker  from  abroad.  This 
last  regular  convocation,  it  is  interesting  to  note, 
is  the  modem  successor  of  the  time-honoured 
**  Thursday  lecture  '*  in  which  Oberlin  for  so  long 
bore  witness  to  its  New  England  and  English 
Puritan  descent. 

Inasmuch  as  President  Thwing  of  the  Western 
Reserve  University  has  come  to  be  regarded  in  this 
country  almost  as  an  authority  on  college  training 
for  women,  the  girls'  department  of  his  particular 
charge  has,  of  course,  a  special  claim  to  our  atten- 


INAUGURAL    PROCESSION,   OBERLIN. 

« 

*4A, 

m^< 

mmummmssmwsmBmi^m 

Ife^-  -^Sl   ' 

SEVERANCE  LABORATORY,  OBERLIN. 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       275 

tion.  It  is  called  the  Geveland  College  for  Women, 
and  grew  out  of  a  permission  to  let  one  young 
woman  enter  certain  classes  of  Adelbert  College 
(the  liberal  arts  department  of  Western  Reserve 
University)  to  pursue  certain  subjects  in  which 
she  was  interested.  This  resulted  in  an  increasing 
number  of  girls  making  application  for  the  full 
course,  in  a  growing  opposition  of  the  professors 
to  their  admission,  and  in  the  ardent  and  deter- 
mined advocacy  of  President  Cutler  in  favour  of 
making  Adelbert  College  coeducational.  Finally  it 
was  made  clear  that,  since  the  intention  of  the  found- 
ers of  Adelbert  was  to  provide  education  for  men 
only,  a  firm  stand  must  be  taken  against  the  in- 
coming of  women.  The  result  of  it  all  was  that 
courses  were  duplicated  for  the  benefit  of  girls. 
And  it  is  in  this  form  rather  than  in  coeducation 
that  girls  have  been  admitted  to  Western  Reserve 
University.  They  receive  their  degrees  with  the 
men,  to  be  sure,  but  the  system  is  that  of  coordina- 
tion. 

Of  other  universities  in  the  West  which  have 
their  own  good  quota  of  women  students  there  are 
many  —  Ohio  State,  with  about  two  hundred  girls, 
the  University  of  Colorado  with  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty,  Colorado  College  and  the  Uni- 
versity of  Denver  with  only  a  few  less  —  to  mention 


276  The  College  Girl  of  America 

merely  a  few  of  the  more  important  not  here  de- 
scribed. It  is,  however,  sufficiently  clear,  I  think, 
that,  while  the  educational  opportunities  afforded 
by  these  coeducational  colleges  of  the  West  are 
admirable,  the  social  life  is  for  the  most  part  dis- 
tinctly inferior  to  that  which  a  girl  may  enjoy  at 
any  one  of  the  colleges  especially  for  women. 

But  there  is  still  the  other  objection  to  coeduca- 
tion to  be  considered,  that  summed  up  in  the  word 
"  love-making."  Dr.  Stanley  Hall  has  just  pub- 
lished an  important  book  to  show  that  during  the 
period  of  adolescence  boys  and  girls  should  not  be 
educated  together,  and  this  quite  as  much  for  the 
sake  of  the  boys  as  for  the  sake  of  the  girls.  His 
argument  might  very  well  apply,  in  my  opinion, 
to  coeducation  in  colleges.  Not  only  do  the  girls 
miss  the  fun  pure  and  simple  which  is  so  valuable 
a  part  of  their  college  life,  but  they  incur  the 
grave  disadvantage  of  being  exposed  at  an  im- 
pressionable age  to  the  bacillus  of  sentimentality. 
Not  to  go  into  this  subject  —  of  which  very  much 
that  is  extreme  and  sensational  has  been  written  — 
it  IS  undeniable  that  a  great  deal  of  inconsequent 
"  love-making  "  does  exist  in  coeducational  colleges. 
People  who  discuss  this  matter  are  wont  to  point 
comfortably  to  the  fact  that  "  there  has  never  been 
any  scandal "  here  or  there ;    they  seem  to  think 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  West       277 

the  subject  is  then  satisfactorily  dismissed.  But  if 
college  annuals  are  any  fair  reflection  of  college 
Hfe,  if  the  intimate  talk  of  students  may  be  trusted 
as  affording  authentic  insight  into  the  student  social 
life,  the  young  men  and  the  girls  at  coeducational 
universities  flirt  a  good  deal,  and  often  carry  their 
flirtations  to  the  point  which  means  that  one  or 
the  other  or  both,  or  some  other  girl  or  man  out- 
side, must  suffer  keenly  as  a  result.  Of  course  a 
girl  may  take  as  emotional  growing  pains  whatever 
comes  to  her  in  this  line  while  she  is  at  college. 
But  surely  it  is  much  better  for  her  to  put  her 
mind  upon  her  lessons,  her  girl  friends,  and  her 
college  frolics  during  her  undergraduate  years  than 
upon  affairs  and  experiences  which  have  to  do  with 
sentiment.  The  proportion  of  marriages  which 
result  from  coeducational  colleges  seems,  on  the 
whole,  to  be  small.  If  it  were  otherwise,  if  the 
young  men  and  young  women  who  have  studied 
together  in  these  institutions  waited  for  each  other 
and  married  —  later  —  coeducation  would,  in  my 
opinion,  have  a  very  strong  argument  for  its  main- 
tenance. But  the  results  in  marriages  appear  to 
be  far  too  small  to  balance  the  obvious  objections 
to  the  system.  In  one  coeducational  university 
where  statistics  were  carefully  kept  for  thirty  years, 
only  twenty-one  couples  are  recorded  among  many 


278  The  College  Girl  of  America 

hundreds  of  young  men  and  young  women  grad- 
uated in  the  Hberal  arts  school.  "  Matrimony  and 
education  are  not  so  closely  allied  in  coeducational 
institutions  as  the  public  imagines,"  the  dean  of 
this  particular  college  asserted.  But  he  did  not 
say  —  he  probably  could  not  say  —  that  flirtation 
and  coeducation  are  not  common  running-mates. 


A    COEDUCATED    GIRL    OF    THE    EAST. 


COEDUCATIONAL   COLLEGES    OF   THE 
EAST 

The  East  is  so  much  more  conservative  than 
le  West,"  the  secretary  of  a  coeducational  Eastern 
college  said,  evasively,  when  I  asked  him  about 
the  success  of  the  comparatively  recent  experiment 
of  welcoming  girls  to  his  institution ;  "  you  can't 
change  easily  in  this  part  of  the  country  the  trend 
of  public  opinion,  you  know;  and  I  really  am  not 
at  all  sure  —  though,  of  course,  I  say  this  un- 
officially—  that  to  admit  girls  to  our  courses  has 
been  good  either  for  the  girls  or  for  the  men.  You 
see,  there  were  plenty  of  colleges  hereabouts  espe- 
cially for  women  long  before  we  threw  open  our 
doors  to  them." 

At  Syracuse  University  they  are  very  proud  of 
the  fact  that  there  has  never  needed  to  be  any 
throwing  open  of  doors  to  women,  inasmuch  as 
since  the  day  when  the  corner-stone  of  the  first 
building  was  laid  on  the  campus,  nay,  even  back 
in  the  days  of  the  old  Genesee  College  at  Lima, 

New   York    (of  which   institution   this   university 

279 


28o  The  College  Girl  of  America 

is  the  successor),  women  have  been  admitted  on 
exactly  the  same  conditions  as  men  to  every  lecture 
and  every  department  of  the  university. 

The  dormitory  system  here  is  of  recent  establish- 
ment, but  this  separates  the  girls  only  in  their  way 
of  life,  not  at  all  in  their  intellectual  privileges  or 
interests.  There  are  two  of  these  dormitories, 
Winchell  Hall,  an  imposing  four-story  building  of 
red  brick  and  Indiana  limestone,  and  Haven  Hall, 
of  brick  and  Ohio  sandstone.  The  cost  of  living 
at  Syracuse  is  very  low  considering  the  mode  of 
life,  it  being  possible  to  get  through  for  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  a  year.  Those  who  have  visited 
many  of  the  American  colleges,  and  studied  the 
position  of  women  in  foreign  universities,  usually 
agree  in  saying  that  they  have  seen  no  other  in- 
stitution where  coeducation  works  more  successfully 
than  here.  The  men  recognize  the  fact  that  women 
have  just  as  good  a  right  here  as  they  (since  they 
have  been  here  just  as  long),  and  they  treat  them 
with  such  respect  and  consideration  as  would  be 
found  in  any  cultivated  society  outside.  The  women 
are  admitted  to  all  the  departments,  but  they  are 
found  chiefly  in  the  two  devoted  to  liberal  arts  and 
fine  arts,  none  being  registered  in  the  engineering 
course,  not  more  than  one  or  two  in  law,  and  less 
than  fifty  in  medicine. 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  East        281 

For  their  social  life,  women  at  Syracuse  have 
the  intercollegiate  sororities,  all  occupying  chapter- 
houses that  supply  a  pleasant  home  life  to  their 
members. 

Boston  University,  founded  some  thirty  years 
ago,  has  offered  coeducation  from  the  start.  Its 
departments  are  arranged  largely  on  the  German 
system,  and  it  has  no  dormitories  whatever.  But 
in  its  liberal  arts  department  there  are  almost  three 
hundred  and  fifty  young  women  who  study  side 
by  side  with  the  young  men.]  And  there  are  very 
many  clubs  and  societies  to^ which  both  girls  and 
men  belong.  The  tuition-fee  at  Boston  University 
is  one  hundred  dollars  a  year;  the  lowest  possible 
living  expense  for  a  girl  is  reported  to  be  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  The  proportion  of 
women  to  men  here,  it  is  worth  noting,  is  three  to 
one.  The  endeavour  to  keep  the  sexes  balanced 
has  been  quite  unsuccessful. 

/  So  far  as  the  casual  student  of  the  matter  may 
judge,  the  most  attractive  coeducational  college  in 
the  East  is  Cornell.  As  soon  as  it  became  plain 
that  there  was  a  demand  on  the  part  of  women  for 
the  privileges  of  education  here,  provision  was  made 
for  their  accommodation.  Sage  College,  as  the 
woman's  building  is  called,  has  now  for  almost 
thirty  years  held  its  honoured  place  in   Cornell's 


282  The  College  Girl  of  America 

plant.  The  gift  of  Henry  W.  Sage,  who  had  long 
been  interested  in  the  university,  it  has  splendidly 
realized  the  prophecy  made  at  the  laying  of  its 
corner-stone :  "  The  efficient  force  of  the  human 
race  will  be  multiplied  in  proportion  as  women, 
by  culture  and  education,  are  fitted  for  new  and 
broader  spheres  of  action."  Even  before  the  first 
official  announcement  that  Cornell  would  open  its 
doors  to  women,  a  girl  came  from  Vassar  College 
to  ask  admittance.  What  to  do  with  her  was  a 
puzzle  to  the  authorities  —  but  finally  the  simple 
expedient  of  allowing  her  to  stay  was  adopted. 
The  question  thus  fairly  faced,  seventeen  other 
women  were  admitted.  And  from  that  time  on 
—  since  1872  —  Cornell  has  had  its  good  share  of 
women  students.  At  the  opening  of  Sage  College 
in  the  autumn  of  1875,  forty-nine  women  were  in 
the  university.  The  latest  report  gives  the  present 
undergraduate  body  of  girl  students  as  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty-six. 

Cornell,  it  should  be  said,  has  figures  quite  differ- 
ent from  those  quoted  in  a  preceding  chapter  con- 
cerning the  effect  of  coeducation  upon  marriage. 
When  the  last  statistics  in  regard  to  this  matter 
were  collected  (in  1895),  it  was  shown  that  fifty- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  marriages  made  by  Cornell 
women  graduates  have  been  with  students  or  in- 


lfc-,._jfF^W 

ni^Ei  V  V -^ 

^^^U^ 

' Jj   o 

RiB 

l^#' 

A 

p%1* 

^v  .^ 

Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  East        283 

structors  of  the  university,  and  that  the  number 
of  those  who  had  received  degrees  from  Cornell 
and  who  were  married  was  fifty  per  cent.  The 
mass  of  information  went  to  show,  too,  that  these 
Cornell  women  made  very  good  wives,  most  of  them 
being  enthusiastic  as  well  as  economical  household 
managers.  "Among  all  of  the  women  graduates 
of  Cornell,  none  known  to  us,"  reported  the  com- 
mittee who  investigated  this  matter,  "  have  resorted 
to  boarding-house  life,  except  as  a  matter  of  tem- 
porary expediency !  " 

There  is  a  very  fine  spirit  of  comradeship  among 
girls  who  have  graduated  from  this  college,  so  much 
so  that  —  in  a  small  town,  at  least  —  a  Cornell 
woman  immediately  looks  up  any  other  Cornell 
woman  who  may  happen  to  come  to  the  place.  This 
is  undoubtedly  a  result  of  the  necessarily  intimate 
way  in  which  Sage  College  women  all  know  each 
other.  Though  in  the  past  few  years  the  university 
has  more  than  doubled  its  dormitory  accommodation 
for  women,  the  girls  are  thrown  constantly  together, 
and  have  a  very  fine  college  spirit.  Some  of  the 
women's  fraternities,  too,  have  purchased  substan- 
tial homes  of  its  own;  and  the  college  life  has 
been  further  enriched  by  providing  ample  gym- 
nasium facilities  and  a  good  swimming-tank  for 
women  students.    While  Cornell  has  been  doubling 


284  The  College  Girl  of  America 

its  dormitory  accommodations,  it  hlas  also  been 
doubling  its  library,  with  the  result  that  it  has  now 
one  of  the  best  general  collections,  as  well  as  the 
most  adequate  special  library  in  its  part  of  the 
country.  The  expense  at  this  college  is  one  hundred 
dollars  for  tuition  fee,  and,  at  the  cheapest,  five 
dollars  a  week  for  girl  students. 

Bates  College  in  Lewiston,  Maine,  enjoys  the 
distinction  of  being  the  first  educational  institution 
on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  to  receive  young  women 
on  the  same  terms  with  men  collegians.  The  dean 
of  women  here  looks  carefully  after  the  comfort 
of  girl  students,  finding  them  pleasant  places  to 
board  in  private  families,  for  the  very  reasonable 
sum  of  five  dollars  or  less  per  week.  As  tuition 
at  this  college  is  only  fifty  dollars,  a  girl  can  get 
through  quite  comfortably  for  two  hundred  a  year. 
The  faculty  realize  one  of  their  highest  pleasures 
in  helping  young  men  and  young  women  to  solve 
the  problem  of  ways  and  means.  Bates  alone,  of 
New  England  colleges,  still  encourages  needy  stu- 
dents to  teach  during  a  part  of  each  year.  And 
that  a  girl  does  not  find  such  teaching,  under  proper 
restrictions,  to  be  at  all  harmful  to  her  scholarship, 
may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  for  two  succes- 
sive seasons  Bates  College  girls  have  won  the  prize 
offered  by  the  Colonial  Dames   of  the  State  of 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  East        285 

Maine  for  the  best  paper  on  colonial  history.  The 
registration  at  Bates  shows  about  one  hundred  and 
thirty  girls. 

There  is  a  common  saying  about  Boston  that  any 
point  from  which  one  can  see  Tufts  College  is 
properly  enough  a  part  of  that  very  desirable  resi- 
dential city.  And  inasmuch  as  Tufts,  on  its  lofty 
height,  is  clearly  discernible  for  a  radius  of  many 
miles,  the  greater  Boston  is  quite  a  big  place.  Dur- 
ing recent  years  Tufts  College  women,  like  the  hill 
of  their  Alma  Mater,  stand  out  fine  and  strong  in 
the  big  busy  world.  Women  were  first  admitted 
to  this  college  in  1892,  as  a  result  of  strong  peti- 
tions sent  in  by  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  and  by 
alumni  with  daughters  to  educate.  All  departments 
are  now  open  to  girls,  and  they  attend  classes  and 
study  side  by  side  with  men.  In  numbers  they  are 
something  over  one  hundred  against  twice  as  many 
men  students.  The  relations  between  the  boys  and 
girls  here  are  very  cordial,  a  good  deal  of  their 
social  life  being  enjoyed  together.  Girls  are  re- 
quired to  live  in  Metcalf  Hall,  or  in  some  other  of 
the  supervised  homes.  The  former  building  is  a 
very  imposing  edifice,  and  bears  on  a  tablet  in  the 
hall  this  fine  inscription :  "  In  honour  of  women, 
and  as  a  help  to  her  higher  education.  Albert 
Metcalf." 


286  The  College  Girl  of  America 

The  social  activities  at  Tufts  are  under  the  con- 
trol of  a  women's  committee  consisting  of  three 
wives  of  professors.  For  a  night  upon  which  they 
wish  to  give  an  entertainment,  the  girls,  having 
consulted  this  committee,  register  three  weeks  in 
advance.  Of  sororities  there  are  two  or  three  here. 
The  college  was  Universalist  in  its  origin,  and 
girls  as  well  as  men  students  are  expected  to  attend 
the  fifteen-minute  chapel  service  at  half-past  eight 
every  morning.  The  Sunday  choir  at  the  chapel 
is  made  up  of  girls  and  men  students,  who  wear 
academic  gowns  and  contribute  in  a  marked  degree 
to  the  attractiveness  of  the  service.  Although  there 
are  no  outdoor  athletics  at  Tufts,  girls  have  the 
privilege  of  the  beautiful  golf-links  on  the  brow  of 
their  hill,  and  are  provided  besides  with  tennis- 
courts  of  their  own.  Two  hours  gymnasium  work 
a  week  is  required.  Four  hundred  dollars  a  year 
is  about  the  lowest  sum  for  which  a  girl  can  com- 
fortably go  through  Tufts. 

Swarthmore  College,  in  the  town  of  the  same 
name  near  Philadelphia,  has  an  almost  equal  number 
(about  one  hundred)  of  men  and  women  students. 
The  foundation  of  this  institution  is  of  the  Friends 
persuasion,  though  Christian  character  and  a  high 
standard  of  scholarship  are  chiefly  regarded.  The 
college  buildings  and  the  campus,  which  comprises 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  East        287 

over  two  hundred  acres  of  land,  occupy  a  command- 
ing position  with  a  view  of  the  Delaware  River  for 
several  miles.  Swarthmore  undertakes  to  provide 
college  life  in  a  home  setting;  to  supply  an  atmos- 
phere in  which  manly  and  womanly  character  may 
develop  naturally  and  completely.  The  students 
meet  in  the  dining-hall  as  in  their  homes;  and  a 
social  hour  in  the  reception-parlour  precedes  each 
evening's  work.  The  intercourse  of  the  men  and 
women  is,  however,  under  the  care  of  the  dean  and 
her  assistants,  and  it  is  the  aim  of  the  college  to 
make  it  a  means  of  social  culture.  Parrish  Hall 
supplies  dormitory  accommodation  for  women 
students  in  its  east  wing.  Board  and  tuition  here 
cost  four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year.  Students 
are  expected  to  attend  Friends'  meeting,  "  held  every 
First  Day  morning,  in  the  meeting-house  on  the 
college  grounds,  as  well  as  the  daily  assemblage  of 
students  and  instructors  for  the  reading  of  the  Bible, 
or  other  suitable  exercises,  which  are  preceded  and 
followed  by  a  period  of  silence."  The  spirit  at  this 
college  is  admirable,  the  constant  effort  (which  is 
successfully  realized)  being  to  mould  the  characters 
of  the  undergraduates,  and  bring  their  life  into 
conformity  with  the  highest  Christian  standards. 
'  Women  were  first  admitted  to  Colby  College, 
Maine,  in  187 1.     In  the  beginning  they  were  re- 


288  The  College  Girl  of  America 

ceived  on  precisely  the  same  terms  as  men,  but  in 
1880,  upon  the  suggestion  of  President  Small,  who, 
it  is  interesting  to  note,  is  now  professor  of  sociol- 
ogy at  Chicago  University,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
ardent  advocates  of  the  recent  "  segregation  "  move- 
ment there,  a  coordinate  division  for  young  women 
was  here  organized.  Since  this  step  was  taken, 
there  have  been  three  times  as  many  girls  at  Colby 
as  ever  before,  i.  e.,  about  seventy-five  as  against 
the  twenty-five  previously  there.  Which  may  possi- 
bly be  interpreted  as  woman's  approval  of  coor- 
dination as  opposed  to  coeducation.  The  men's  and 
women's  division  still  use  the  same  chapel  and  the 
same  lecture-halls,  but  they  recite  together  only  in 
elective  courses  where  the  classes  are  small.  At 
present  there  are  three  residence  halls  especially  for 
women  at  Colby,  all  three  being  in  charge  of  a 
resident  matron  under  a  dean  of  women.  Board  in 
these  halls  costs  three  dollars  each  week.  Thus  al- 
most the  lowest  living  expense  possible  here  is  one 
hundred  and  thirty  dollars  a  year,  to  which  should 
be  added  sixty  dollars  for  tuition  fee.  The  number 
of  men  students  is  only  slightly  in  excess  of  the 
women. 

At  the  University  of  Vermont  the  tuition  costs 
precisely  the  same  as  at  Colby.  But  the  living 
expense  is  higher.    Young  women  are  admitted  to 


A    WESLEYAN    GIRL. 


Coeducational  Colleges  of  the  East        289 

all  the  courses  upon  exactly  the  same  terms  as  young 
men,  but  in  this  hundred-year-old  institution  the 
girls  are  only  half  as  numerous  as  the  represent- 
atives of  the  sterner  sex.  Their  social  life  in  Grass- 
mount,  a  fine  old  mansion  formerly  occupied  by 
Governor  Van  Ness  and  now  secured  for  the  use 
of  girl  students,  is  very  attractive.  The  house  is 
surrounded  by  ample  grounds,  commands  a  delight- 
ful view,  and  is  under  the  supervision  of  a  matron. 
Living  costs  a  girl  from  one  hundred  and  sixty-five 
to  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  dollars  a  year, 
according  to  her  room.  It  is  hard,  therefore,  for 
a  girl  to  get  along  at  this  university  for  less  than 

?ee  hundred  dollars  a  year. 
\t  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Connecti- 
cut, there  are  about  fifty  young  women  students. 
Here  and  there,  throughout  the  East,  in  colleges  pri- 
marily for  men,  may  be  found  several  other  such  little 
groups  of  girls,  struggling  with  what  courage  and 
steadfastness  they  can  command,  to  get  an  educa- 
tion. But  women  have  not  been  a  very  great  suc- 
cess at  the  men's  colleges  of  New  England,  as  has 
been  hinted.  Possibly  this  is  because  the  men 
students  have  heard  and  would  reprove  such  a 
reason  given  for  going  to  a  coeducational  college 
as  that  which  one  New  England  girl  confided  to 
me :    "I  chose  this  place  just  because  there  are 


290  The  College  Girl  of  America 

boys.  I  like  the  social  life  of  a  college  where  there 
are  a  lot  of  men  to  have  a  good  time  with."  Which 
confession  had  certainly  the  recommendation  of 
honesty. 


AFTER    COLLEGE  — WHAT? 

Our  colleges  will  have  graduated  this  year,  as 
for  several  years  past,  thousands  of  alert,  healthy, 
mentally  well-equipped  girls,  a  large  proportion  of 
whom  must  enter  the  world's  life  and  become  self- 
supporting.  The  great  and  pressing  problem  is, 
"How?" 

No  longer  in  these  days  is  it  a  foregone  conclu- 
sion that  because  a  girl  has  received  a  good  educa- 
tion she  will  support  herself  as  a  teacher.  Happily 
for  our  children,  the  teaching  profession  has  now 
attained  a  dignity  which  places  it  beyond  the  hit-or- 
miss  services  of  any  college  graduate.  Moreover, 
girls  themselves  are  branching  out  in  this  twen- 
tieth  century  into  trades  and  professions  which, 
offer  more  opportunity  for  individual  resource  and 
individual  enterprise  than  does  the  profession  of 
the  pedagogue.  The  girl  of  the  period  wishes  to  get 
into  touch  with  the  larger  life  of  the  world,  to  feel, 
through  her  occupations,  some  pulsations  of  our 
own  Time  Spirit.  For  this  reason  she  seeks  new 
fields  of  labour.     But,  rather  paradoxically,  many 

291 


292  The  College  Girl  of  America 

of  the  new  activities  in  which  educated  women  are 
engaging  with  signal  success  prove,  when  closely- 
examined,  to  be  reversions  to  the  primitive  occupa- 
tions of  their  grandmothers.  Only  the  aspect  of 
them  has  changed. 

A  notable  example  of  this  is  afforded  by  the  highly 
successful  bakery  recently  started  in  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts,  by  two  clear-eyed,  level-headed,  well- 
born, and  well-bred  college  girls.  The  furniture 
in  the  salesroom  of  this  unique  establishment  was 
after  the  most  approved  William  Morris  standards ; 
on  the  walls  were  quotations  from  Tolstoian  books 
on  the  dignity  of  labour;  beautiful  pictures,  taste- 
fully framed,  decorative  palms,  and  a  handsome 
rug  completed  the  equipment  of  this  highly  inter- 
esting bake-shop.  And  here,  in  the  artistic  setting 
they  had  created  for  their  excellent  wares,  the  two 
college  girls  themselves  were  kept  busy  all  the  time 
disposing  of  their  bread  and  breadsticks  for  just 
twice  the  sum  charged  by  other  bakers. 

"  Without  a  vision,"  remarked  wise  old  Solomon, 
"  the  people  perish."  The  young  brains  behind  this 
Laboratory  Kitchen  (so  successful  that  it  now  has 
enlarged  quarters  in  Boston)  have  caught  the  vision 
of  better  things  in  the  industrial  order,  and  they 
are  inspiringly  working  it  out.  That  their  efforts 
are  meeting  with  appreciation  is  a  tribute  to  the 


After  College  — What?  293 

public's  receptivity  as  well  as  to  the  value  of  their 
idea.  To  this  idea  there  are,  of  course,  two  dis- 
tinct sides  —  that  of  the  worker  and  that  of  the 
product.  Of  the  former  too  much  can  scarcely  be 
said.  But  on  the  latter  it  is  not  our  purpose  here 
to  dwell.  Suffice  it,  then,  to  remark  on  this  point 
that  bread  for  which  people  are  glad  to  pay  twice 
the  ordinary  price  must  possess  a  merit  not  to  be 
had  in  the  wares  of  the  comer  shop.  That  is  plain 
on  the  surface. 

Now  for  the  workers  themselves,  and  the  idea 
for  which  their  Laboratory  Kitchen  stands  —  an 
idea  very  well  worth  publishing  to  intelligent  young 
women  the  country  over.  Miss  Stevenson,  the  man- 
ager, is  a  South  Carolinian,  and  when  she  lectures, 
as  she  sometimes  does,  on  her  trade,  she  begins  by 
remarking :  "  My  grandfather  was  a  judge,  but  I 
am  a  baker."  She  firmly  believes,  as  one  very  soon 
discovers  from  a  talk  with  her,  that  there  is  not 
really,  and  so  should  never  have  been  socially,  that 
great  gulf  we  have  honoured  for  years  between 
people  who  work  with  their  brains  and  those  who 
work  with  their  hands ;  and  she  feels  strongly  that 
there  is  a  place  commercially  for  the  college-bred 
in  the  improvement  of  the  quality  of  the  necessaries 
of  life.    Hence  the  text  engraved  on  every  package 


294  The  College  Girl  of  America 

that  leaves  the  shop :   "  There  is  nothing  finer  than 
common  bread,  unless  it  be  bread  of  a  finer  kind." 

The  way  in  which  this  original  young  woman 
came  into  the  profession  of  bread-making  is  most 
interesting,  for  naturally  something  akin  to  "  con- 
version "  had  to  be  experienced  by  a  Southerner  of 
aristocratic  training  before  the  point  of  view  that 
bread  is  worthy  of  a  life's  devotion  should  be  at- 
tained. While  a  student  at  Converse  College  in 
her  native  State,  Miss  Stevenson  became  greatly 
interested  in  chemistry,  specializing  for  three  years 
on  the  subject.  Later  she  spent  several  terms  at 
Radcliffe  College,  Cambridge,  studying  English,  that 
she  might  be  able  to  express  clearly  and  well  what 
she  had  to  say  about  chemistry.  All  this  time  her 
intention  was  to  follow  the  beaten  track,  and  teach 
chemistry.  At  about  this  stage  of  her  student  ca- 
reer, however,  she  fell  under  the  influence  of  a  large- 
brained  woman  whose  breadth  of  scholarship  and 
sane  philosophy  of  life  communicated  to  her  such 
a  grasp  upon  the  underlying  principles  of  things 
as  was  calculated  to  work  a  veritable  revolution  in 
the  girl's  point  of  view.  There  began  to  be  borne 
in  upon  Miss  Stevenson  the  truth  that  bread,  because 
it  is  one  of  the  necessities  of  life,  is  a  thing  needed 
in  perfection.  Whether  there  would  be  a  demand 
for  a  bread  made  in  perfection  she  did  not  know. 


After  College  — What?  295 

But  the  accident  of  meeting  then  Miss  Frances  Elli- 
ott, the  daughter  of  a  Toronto  physician,  who  had 
likewise  speciaHzed  in  chemistry,  and  was  wiUing 
to  make  with  her  the  hazard  of  a  bakery  such  as 
she  had  thought  out,  decided  her  course.  Miss 
ElHott  had  also  been  a  pupil  of  the  inspiring  teacher, 
and  she  was  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  To- 
ronto. Further,  she,  too,  had  studied  in  Boston, 
and  knew  its  ways.  Cambridge  was  accordingly 
chosen  as  the  place  in  which  to  make  the  experiment 
of  the  Laboratory  Kitchen. 

The  girls  had  been  told  that  the  city  on  the  Charles 
was  hospitable  to  ideals,  but  at  first  they  did  not  find 
this  to  be  altogether  true.  For  some  time,  indeed, 
the  college  folk,  with  whom  they  had  previously 
maintained  pleasant  social  relations,  looked  upon 
their  venture  askance.  Then  one  day  the  much- 
lamented  and  universally  beloved  Mrs.  Alice  Free- 
man Palmer,  hearing  that  two  college  girls  had 
started  a  Laboratory  Kitchen  there  in  her  neighbour- 
hood, went  down  to  their  pretty  salesroom,  and  over 
the  purchase  of  some  bread  for  her  own  lunch-table 
made  their  acquaintance,  and  asked  permission  to 
call  upon  them  in  the  little  home  they  had  set  up 
a  block  or  two  away  from  the  bakeshop.  After 
that  there  was  no  question  in  the  minds  of  Canta- 
brigians. 


296  The  College  Girl  of  America 

At  the  beginning,  while  they  were  perfecting  their 
recipes,  these  two  young  enthusiasts  did  all  the  bak- 
ing themselves.  Within  three  months  they  paid 
expenses.  The  demand  proved  to  be  much  greater 
than  they  had  expected.  "  I  find  people  appreciate 
a  good  thing  in  any  line  when  it  is  made  with  an 
eye  on  the  article,  and  not  on  the  cash  register," 
commented  Miss  Stevenson,  in  speaking  of  her  im- 
mediate success. 

"  Personally,"  she  continued,  "  I  am  immensely 
interested  in  the  economic  side  of  this  business.  I 
myself  so  firmly  believe  that  people  need  workers 
more  than  talkers  that  I  am  very  glad  indeed  to  have 
proved  that  a  girl  can  earn  a  living  in  labour  of  this 
kind." 

Miss  Stevenson  defends,  whenever  she  has  oppor- 
tunity, her  firm  conviction  that  the  process  of  bread- 
making  is  very  interesting  to  the  educated  woman 
because  of  the  intelligence  required  to  perfect  it. 
And  bread-making  appeals,  for  far-reaching  reasons, 
she  holds,  to  the  college  woman.  First,  because  of 
its  fundamental  relation  to  daily  living  —  right 
nourishment  of  the  body  being  the  first  step  toward 
right  behaviour  of  the  mind ;  second,  because  of  its 
possibilities  in  what  the  modern  mind  realizes  to  be 
the  elementary  and  very  significant  field  of  life,  the 
business  field,  this  occupation,  she  says,  should  claim 


After  College  — What?  297 

a  high  place.  Business  is  to-day  the  great  field  in 
which  all  classes  are  included.  And  yet  it  is  the 
only  field  which  has  no  controlling  ideal.  There 
is  but  one  way,  she  and  her  partner  believe,  to  save 
the  nation  from  the  present  warfare  between  master 
and  slave,  and  that  is  for  the  educated  people  to 
come  down  from  their  vantage-ground  as  onlookers, 
and  enter  the  workaday  arena,  matching  trickery 
with  truth,  selfishness  with  service.  Then,  too,  there 
is  room  for  the  college-bred  woman  here  —  which 
is  much. 

Something  like  these  same  ideals  —  though  per- 
haps not  so  clearly  defined  —  were  the  compelling 
motives  which  led  two  Wellesley  girls  to  undertake 
the  management,  at  Wellesley,  Massachusetts,  of  a 
tea-room,  which  has  now  grown  to  be  a  College  Inn. 
The  students  of  the  college  subscribed  for  the  stock 
in  this  inn,  and  thus  the  clever  young  "  promoters," 
themselves  Wellesley  graduates,  secured  the  funds 
necessary  to  the  erection  of  a  fine  new  building. 
And  it  is  in  this  building  that  the  restaurant  which 
had  already  become  a  feature  of  student  life  at 
Wellesley  is  now  carried  on.  Further,  the  house 
affords  ample  accommodation  for  alumnae  returning 
to  their  Alma  Mater  for  a  few  days*  visit,  the  prefer- 
ence being  given  at  crowded  times  to  graduates  who 
are  also  stockholders.     In  connection  with  the  inn 


298  The  College  Girl  of  America 

and  its  excellent  restaurant,  these  enterprising  girls 
started  a  successful  weekly  paper,  the  first  ever  made 
to  pay  in  a  girls'  college.  Business  ability,  social 
gifts,  and  a  devoted  love  for  the  college  with  which 
their  enterprise  is  unofficially  connected,  may  be  held 
to  be  the  qualities  responsible  for  their  decided  suc- 
cess. Certainly  they  had  had  absolutely  no  expe- 
rience in  hotel  or  restaurant  work  when  they  opened 
their  tea-room.  They  only  knew  that  college  girls 
are  eternally  hungry,  and  that  a  pleasant,  well-con- 
ducted little  tea-shop  would  receive  plenty  of  patron- 
age. So  they  got  in  "  Aunt  Mary  Jane,"  a  negro 
cook  who  had  been  in  the  family,  and  took  a  shop. 
Then  the  Inn  grew  to  fill  a  very  real  and  long-felt 
need.  And  though  the  corporation  is  not  yet  many 
years  old,  it  is  already  very  firmly  established,  and 
pays  handsome  dividends  to  its  stockholders. 

One  other  college  woman  venture  of  a  decidedly 
domestic  nature  is  the  Sunshine  Laundry,  carried 
on  in  Brookline,  Massachusetts,  by  two  Smith  gradu- 
ates. A  feature  of  this  establishment  is  the  cleanli- 
ness and  airiness  of  the  rooms  in  which  the  work 
is  done.  Higher  prices  than  are  commonly  charged 
for  laundry  work  are  here  demanded,  but  none  of 
the  hundreds  of  regular  customers  on  the  establish- 
ment's list  demur  at  larger  bills,  since  these  ensure 
better  service  than  could  be  anywhere  else  obtained. 


After  College  — What?  299 

Another  college-bred  girl  that  I  know  has  gone 
into  the  employment  business.  From  her  own  ex- 
perience she  had  observed  that  ladies  are  in  constant 
tribulation  because  of  inability  to  secure  good  help 
willing  to  stay  in  service.  And  from  her  work  in 
a  college  settlement  house  she  had  come  to  have  a 
good  understanding  of  the  servant's  side  of  the  ques- 
tion. She  saw  clearly  that  what  was  needed  was 
a  higher  sense  of  personal  obligation  on  the  part 
of  both  people  making  the  contract.  She  allied 
herself,  therefore,  with  a  woman's  association  of 
standing,  and  is  going  far  to  solve  the  problem  by 
dissolving  the  difficulties  of  the  servant  situation. 
For,  while  the  mistress  makes  concessions  to  the 
maid  in  this  establishment,  the  maid  similarly  binds 
herself  to  the  mistress.  Then,  if  both  are  honest  — 
as  they  usually  are  —  the  contract  entered  into  bids 
fair  to  be  a  tolerably  stable  one.  This  is  a  work 
which  requires  no  capital  whatever,  and  one  in  which 
any  girl  interested  in  matters  sociological,  and  pos- 
sessed of  warm  human  interest  and  a  fair  amount 
of  tact,  might  easily  engage  without  leaving  her 
home,  provided,  of  course,  that  the  community  in 
which  she  lives  is  large  enough  to  give  opportunity 
for  usefulness  in  this  line. 

Another  of  the  new  social  forces,  which  are  doing 
so  much  to  make  the  world  a  sweeter  place  to  live  in, 


300  The  College  Girl  of  America 

is  that  exercised  by  the  woman  rent  collector.  It 
is  the  duty  of  a  young  woman  filling  this  position 
to  see  that  the  rents  of  buildings  under  her  charge 
are  promptly  paid  and  that  the  tenements  are  kept 
in  repair.  But  her  work  is  much  finer  and  broader 
than  this  mere  business  side  of  it,  for  she  can  help 
sustain  a  high  standard  of  home  life  in  the  tene- 
ments, and,  by  her  influence,  lead  the  tenants  to 
cleaner,  better  ways  of  living  than  they  have  known. 
In  establishing  order  and  cleanliness,  in  managing 
the  property  with  justice  to  both  tenant  and  land- 
lord, her  duties  as  agent  end.  But  having  gained 
her  tenants'  confidence  by  fair  treatment,  she  can 
help  them  as  a  friend.  Indeed,  they  will  often  ap- 
peal to  her  for  advice  or  sympathy.  Her  help, 
though  philanthropy,  is  not  charity,  however.  Grow- 
ing out  of  fair  business  relations,  it  has  a  per- 
manency which  philanthropy  pure  and  simple  does 
not  ensure. 

The  work  of  a  social  secretary  likewise  appeals 
strongly  to  the  girl  trained  in  college.  With  the 
rise  of  the  factory  system,  the  corporation,  and  the 
trust,  the  interests  of  business  have  become  so  great 
as  to  absorb  the  time  of  those  directly  responsible 
for  it.  The  new  conditions  have  created  a  new 
need,  —  that  of  a  woman  who  can  devote  her  en- 
tire time  to  becoming  acquainted  with  employees. 


After  College  — What?  301 

who  can  attend  to  the  sanitary  and  physical  condi- 
tions under  which  they  work  and  secure  better  re- 
sults of  labour.  To  do  this  requires  training,  tact, 
intelligence,  sympathy,  and  experience.  The  social 
secretary  must  possess  originality  and  a  power  of 
adaptation,  together  with  a  capacity  for  hard  work. 
She  must  oversee  the  library  and  superintend  the 
entertainments  to  raise  money  for  it  and  other  pur- 
poses. She  must  watch  the  lunch-rooms  and  see 
that  a  proper  standard  of  food  is  maintained.  She 
must  be  prime  mover  in  planning  outings  of  all 
kinds.  If  a  school  for  cash  or  errand  boys  is  started, 
she  must  act  as  its  supervisor.  In  cases  of 
illness  or  distress,  it  is  she  who  seeks  out  the  absent 
employee,  and  brings  the  necessary  aid.  If  a  mutual 
benefit  fund  exist  among  the  operatives,  she  takes 
an  active  interest  in  its  workings.  The  daily  re- 
quests for  her  advice  or  assistance  present  a  variety 
ranging  through  matters  of  health,  board,  courses 
of  study  for  the  evening,  salary,  dentists,  vacations, 
and  shirt-waist  patterns.  "  But  far  above  all  this," 
as  a  successful  social  secretary  has  well  said,  "  rests 
the  individual  personal  touch,  the  high  ideals  of  life 
made  attractive,  the  power  to  take  a  girl  whose 
breeding  has  been  of  the  *  tumbled  up '  sort  and  to 
reveal  to  her  the  *  vision  splendid.'  " 

In  creative  work  of  the  arts  and  crafts  variety, 


302  The  College  Girl  of  America 

tcK),  as  well  as  along  ameliorative  lines,  college  girls 
may  to-day  do  much  to  help  the  world.  William 
Morris  is  the  controlling  ideal  of  one  unique  little 
Boston  shop  to  which  I  greatly  like  to  go  occasion- 
ally. This  is  the  bookbindery  of  Miss  Mary  Sears, 
high  up  in  a  building  opposite  Boston  Common. 
There  are  several  women  bookbinders  in  the  coi 
try,  but  Miss  Sears  stands  alone,  I  fancy,  in  tb 
spirit  with  which  she  has  undertaken  her  work. 
Trained  in  the  best  ateliers  of  London  and  Paris, 
she  is  an  enthusiastic  teacher  of  her  craft  as  well  as 
an  excellent  binder.  But  she  accepts  as  pupils  only 
such  choice  spirits  as  are,  like  herself,  in  love  with 
books  and  bookbinding.  All  the  work  in  her  little 
establishment  is  done  by  the  fingers  of  these  enthusi- 
astic apprentices,  and  every  book  bound  reflects  the 
intelligence  of  the  women  concerned  in  it.  On  a 
dainty  morocco  volume  of  Keats  would  be  traced, 
perhaps,  some  lines  which  would  show  at  once  that 
the  worker  herself  knew  and  loved  the  figures  on 
the  Greek  Urn.  Such  binding  as  this  naturally  at- 
tracts to  the  little  shop  the  most  conspicuous  bibli- 
ophiles of  Boston.  Consequently  the  good  work 
pays,  as  the  late  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd  contended 
that  work  with  high  ideals  always  will. 

For  the  girl  whose  lot  is  cast  in  the  country,  as 
well  as  for  city  maidens,  there  are,  however,  new 


After  College  — What?  303 

and  interesting  lines  of  labour.  Miss  Mary  Cutler, 
of  Holliston,  Massachusetts,  left  several  years  ago 
with  some  greenhouse  property  on  her  hands,  re- 
solved to  make  herself  mistress  of  horticultural  and 
floricultural  lore.  Accordingly,  she  has  worked  and 
•studied  until  to-day  her  small  fruit  department  is 
eked  with  many  varieties  hardly  obtainable  else- 
nere.  And  she  is  able  to  offer  ornamental  trees 
and  shrubs  of  rare  and  rich  beauty.  Pecuniarily  as 
well  as  in  other  ways.  Miss  Cutler  has  made  a  de- 
cided success  of  this  work.  For  years  Margaret 
Deland,  the  Boston  author,  has  raised  jonquils  in 
her  window  garden,  which  she  is  able  to  sell  each 
spring  at  a  good  price.  Mrs.  Deland  is,  therefore, 
an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  window-gardening  for 
profit.  I  know,  too,  a  girl  in  Long  Island,  New 
York,  who,  though  she  lives  some  seventy-five  miles 
from  the  metropolis,  her  market,  is  able  to  make 
a  very  good  income  raising  violets  for  the  city  flo- 
rists and  for  private  customers. 

Deerfield,  Massachusetts,  offers,  however,  the 
most  remarkable  instance  of  success  in  home  indus- 
tries afforded  by  any  country-place  of  which  I  know. 
Concerning  three  of  these  only  I  will  speak :  that  of 
magazine  illustration  by  photographs  —  in  which 
the  Misses  Allen,  of  this  quaint  old  town,  have  made 
a  great  success ;  the  blue  and  white  embroidery  now 


304  The  College  Girl  of  America 

renowned  the  country  over,  and  the  basket-making. 
The  world  knows  Deerfield  Village  by  its  Society 
of  Blue  and  White  Needlework,  formed  by  Miss 
Margaret  Whiting  and  Miss  Miller,  residents  of  the 
town.  This  society  has  now  been  in  existence  some 
half  a  dozen  years,  and  at  the  present  time  there 
are  nearly  a  score  of  women  working  on  the  design? 
which  Miss  Miller  and  Miss  Whiting  have  adapted 
from  the  old  embroideries  and  bits  of  china  in  which 
Deerfield  homes  abound.  Embroidery  in  the  old 
days  was  a  very  different  thing  from  buying  a  piece 
of  cloth  with  a  design  stamped  and  the  silk  selected. 
When  a  girl  preparing  her  trousseau  decided  to 
make  a  set  of  curtains  and  a  spread  for  the  best  bed, 
she  took  carefully  selected  flax,  hetchelled  and  spun 
it,  wove  it  into  cloth,  and  bleached  it  on  the  grass. 
Some  of  the  linen  thread  she  dyed  two  or  three 
shades  of  blue  in  the  indigo-tub  which  always  stood 
in  the  chimney-comer.  Then  she  drew  a  design 
on  the  linen,  very  lightly,  making  it  up  as  she  went 
along,  with  a  bit  of  charcoal.  This  design  she  filled 
in  with  queer,  fanciful  stitches.  These  old-fashioned 
embroideries  are  for  the  most  part  Oriental  in  char- 
acter, and  were  probably  suggested  by  the  figures 
on  Eastern  shawls  which  were  brought  home  by  sea- 
captains.  But  now,  through  the  Deerfield  Blue  and 
White  Society,  many  a  home  which  cannot  boast  of 


After  College  —  What  ?  305 

sea-captain  ancestors  enjoys  the  graceful  patterns 
of  the  olden  times. 

Here,  then,  are  a  dozen  concrete  examples  of  suc- 
cess in  new  enterprises  undertaken  by  educated 
women.  What  some  girls  have  done  other  girls 
can  do  in  these  uncrowded  fields.  But  chiefly  for 
their  value  as  suggestions,  as  possible  points  of  de- 
parture to  still  other  original  occupations,  have  these 
accounts  been  given.  In  woman's  work,  as  else- 
where, pioneering,  difficult  as  it  is,  offers  its  own 
peculiar  zest  and  its  own  rich  reward.  And  never 
have  the  industrial,  commercial,  and  sociological 
fields  been  so  white  for  the  harvest  as  now. 

Of  literary  women  there  are,  of  course,  hundreds 
who  have  had  a  college  training.  Some  are  by  no 
means  distinguished  in  the  world  of  letters,  but 
a  few  others  —  such  as  Miss  Josephine  Preston 
Peabody,  of  Boston,  a  poet  of  really  remarkable 
gifts  —  have  made  reputations  while  still  very 
young.  As  artists  and  architects,  too,  college  girls 
are  winning  renown.  And  at  least  two  or  three  are 
successful  actresses.  In  musical  composition  and 
in  playwriting,  college-bred  women  have  been  de- 
cidedly successful  —  and  one  college  woman  has 
even  added  a  new  chapter  to  the  history  of  the 
world ! 

The  lady  to  confer  the  last-named   distinction 


3o6  The  College  Girl  of  America 

upon  women's  colleges  was  Miss  Harriet  Boyd 
(born  in  Boston  some  thirty  odd  years  ago,  and 
graduated  from  Smith  College  before  she  was 
twenty-one),  who  became  a  student  at  the  American 
School  of  Classical  Studies  at  Athens,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  deciphering  descriptions.  But  Miss  Boyd 
desired  to  excavate,  and  this  she  began  to  do  in  the 
spring  of  190 1  on  the  island  of  Crete,  where  ar- 
chaeologists of  all  nations  had  vigorously  set  to 
work.  Not  until  she  began  her  work  at  St.  An- 
thony's Hill,  Kavousi,  however,  did  she  really  strike 
anything  of  interest.  Here,  within  a  mile  of  the 
main  highway  to  Crete,  from  a  small  excavation 
which  at  the  time  seemed  almost  a  failure,  were 
exhumed  some  bronze  tools  and  potsherds  which 
offered  evidence  conclusive  that  a  Bronze  Age 
settlement  had  been  discovered.  Miss  Boyd  says 
that  she  lives  at  all  times,  while  in  charge  of  an 
expedition,  in  the  best  style  possible  —  and  this  not 
only  that  she  may  hospitably  entertain  such  archaeo- 
logical guests  as  come  her  way,  but  also  for  the 
sake  of  the  impression  a  good  mode  of  life  makes 
upon  the  peasants.  It  is  curious  to  think  that  an 
English  tea-basket  goes  out  each  afternoon  at  four 
o'clock  to  this  Smith  College  girl  and  her  asso- 
ciate who  are  engaged  in  directing  some  hundred 


After  College  — What?  307 

workmen  in  the  excavation  of  a  city  of  the  Bronze 
Age. 

In  the  professions,  college-bred  women  continue 
to  be  broadly  successful.  The  number  of  them  who 
are  nobly  filling  educational  positions  is  very  large; 
in  the  ministry  they  may  be  found  by  the  dozens 
in  these  days;  of  lawyers  there  are  perhaps  a  few 
hundred  in  the  United  States,  and  of  women  phy- 
sicians possibly  a  thousand  or  two.  In  this  last- 
named  profession  the  college  girl  will  in  the  future, 
according  to  some  authorities,  find  particularly 
good  chances  of  usefulness  and  of  pecuniary  success. 
One  very  charming  college-bred  woman  physician 
that  I  know,  who  has  to-day  a  ten  thousand  dollar 
practice  and  is  able  to  be  a  means  of  inspiration 
to  a  hundred  or  so  devoted  women  patients,  said 
to  me  recently : 

"  A  woman  has  every  chance  of  a  competence  as 
a  physician,  a  bigger  chance,  I  should  say,  than  in 
any  other  profession  she  can  follow.  For  equip- 
ment she  should  have  a  college  education  or  its 
equivalent  (that  within  herself  which  will  enable 
her  to  grasp  things  and  escape  narrowness),  good 
physical  health,  a  not  too  emotional  temperament, 
and  a  diploma  from  a  good  coeducational  medical 
school.  This  last  qualification  seems  to  me  very 
important,  for  the  opportunity  to  observe  how  men 


3o8  The  College  Girl  of  America 

take  hold  of  things  serves  to  modify  her  view  of 
humanity  in  general.  Then  she  should  go,  with 
money  enough  to  keep  herself  for  awhile,  to  a 
locality  where  she  means  to  stay.  If  you  ask  me 
to  what  school  she  should  have  resorted,  I  would 
say  that  Johns  Hopkins  is  good  for  allopathic  and 
Boston  University  for  homoeopathic  training.  She 
should  have  a  comfortable  practice  established 
at  the  end  of  eight  or  ten  years.  The  money  reward 
is  great,  as  I  have  said,  but  of  course  the  work 
itself  is  its  chief  inducement  to  a  right-minded  girl. 
More  and  more  women  are  coming  to  use  women 
physicians.  Many  of  the  best-known  men  prac- 
titioners in  this  city  send  their  women  patients  to 
me  constantly  nowadays,  for  certain  kinds  of  treat- 
ment." 

Further  to  enlarge  upon  college-bred  wqmen  in 
the  professions  were  unnecessary.  They  have  estab- 
lished their  right  to  be  here,  because  they  have 
proved  their  intrinsic  purity  of  aim  and  their  capa- 
bility for  usefulness. 


CONCLUSION 

There  can  be  no  doubt  about  it,  the  first  year 
and  a  half  after  graduation  is  rather  a  painful  period 
to  the  college  girl.  She  may,  of  course,  be  at  a 
professional  school,  in  which  case  she  is  still  study- 
ing, and,  therefore,  still  in  a  congenial  environment. 
But  if  the  recent  graduate  decides  to  go  straight  into 
some  kind  of  work,  or  if,  on  the  other  hand,  she 
returns  to  the  old  home,  the  process  of  "  adjust- 
ment "  is  difficult.  She  finds  it  hard  to  fit  in 
with  other  people.  Not  that  she  lacks  social  apti- 
tude, but  that  she  has  for  four  years  been  meeting 
those  who  for  the  most  part  understood  her  and 
her  ambitions. 

All  the  world  makes  way  for  the  college 
student;  for  the  college  graduate  there  is  too 
often  only  criticism  and  crowding.  Yet  since 
the  drama  of  human  life  is  not  a  game  of  solitaire, 
fit  in  she  must.  The  years  which  Dr.  Hanford 
Henderson  has  so  aptly  called  those  of  the  "  ex- 
perimental life  "  are  very  trying  to  the  girl's  ideals. 
Her  salvation  at  this  stage  would  seem  to  lie  in  an 

309 


310  The  College  Girl  of  America 

earnest  resolution  not  to  do  anything  which  is  not 
really  uplifting.  Keep  her  ideals  she  must,  if  college 
is  to  be  her  benefactor.  Her  difficulty  lies  in  apply- 
ing them,  in  strenuously  striving  for  unfaltering 
practical  impulses  which  shall  lead  to  her  highest 
development.  • 

Let  us  see  what  these  may  be.  Perhaps  the  girl 
wants  to  go  away  from  home  and  work  in  the 
world  with  men.  Now,  if  she  has  this  desire  within 
her,  it  seems  to  me  better  to  let  her  have  her  way. 
"  If  the  girl  has  right  royal  good  sense,"  says  a 
recent  writer  in  this  connection,  "  there  will  in  time 
develop  in  her  character  areas  of  wisdom,  and  she 
will  come  back  all  the  more  contented  after  her  little 
fling  in  the  busy  world  to  marry  some  wisely  chosen 
and  fortunate  young  man,  or  to  comfort  her  father 
and  mother  in  their  declining  years  and  hold  her 
sway  in  the  home,  well  sunned  and  ripened  by  her 
added  experience." 

These  seem  to  me  wise  words.  I  would  simply 
wish  to  suggest  that  the  family  should  in  no  way 
curtail  this  "  experience "  by  means  of  an  allow- 
ance. 

If  you  aim  to  be  independent,  girls,  be  inde- 
pendent. You  have  no  real  right  to  be  earning 
your  living  when  it  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  enter 
the  economic  struggle.    The  place  you  occupy  may 


Conclusion  311 

mean  life  and  hope  to  another,  and  its  lack  dis- 
couragement and  despair.  Yet  if  you  will  work, 
support  yourself  wholly.  Pay  your  board,  buy  your 
own  clothes.  Don't  let  the  family  send  you  money. 
If  there  is  to  be  any  money-sending,  you  should 
do  it. 

But  very  often  the  home  people  do  not  need 
money  and  do  need  you.  The  natural  and  simple 
division  of  labour  is  the  one  that  assigns  to  women 
the  duties  and  activities  that  centre  'round  the 
hearth.  It  is  a  sociological  fact  that  women  and 
the  home,  with  all  the  institutions  that  spring  from 
it,  are  interdependent.  If  it's  dull  at  home,  that's 
your  fault.  You  have  had  splendid  educational 
opportunities.  Use  them  for  the  good  of  your  kith 
and  kin  and  kind.  An  intelligent  woman  should 
be  for  all  her  neighbours  a  strong  stimulus  to  self- 
activity.  It  is  the  nature  of  an  enlightened  mind 
to  diffuse  light,  of  a  generous  soul  to  make  love 
prevail,  of  a  noble  character  to  build  character. 
College  should  make  a  girl  eminently  fit  for  a  full 
home  life,  social  in  the  deepest  sense.  If  she  goes 
home  to  uncongenial  surroundings  she  has  her  task 
cut  out  for  her  at  once.  Here  is  infinite  opportunity 
for  the  exercise  of  womanly  tact.  She  must  change 
things,  of  course,  —  college  years  were  thrown  away 
else,  —  but  she  must  mould  her  environment  to  meet 


312  The  College  Girl  of  America 

her  ideals  with  such  sweetness  and  grace  and  good- 
will that  all  her  neighbours  will  marvel  at  the  beau- 
tifying influences  of  college  upon  character. 

She  must  see  to  it  that  her  impulses  are  practical 
ones,  however.  If  necessary,  she  must  really  help 
at  home,  work  with  those  hands  that  have  hereto- 
fore fingered  lexicons.     It  won't  hurt  her  at  all. 

If  she's  the  right  kind  of  girl  her  intellect  will 
take  care  of  itself.  Almost  every  village  in  these 
days  has  its  library  and  its  magazine  club.  Then 
she  will,  of  course,  own  the  more  important  works 
in  the  world's  literature,  and  carefully  con  them 
again  and  again. 

And  for  society,  she  will  have  city  friends  in 
summer,  with  their  talk  of  plays  and  lectures  and 
picture-galleries,  and  in  winter  there  will  be  the 
townsfolk,  from  whom,  as  she  will  readily  recog- 
nize, she  can  learn  much  not  written  in  books.  The 
young  people  of  the  village  she  should  encourage 
to  go  to  school  and  college.  The  selectmen  she 
should  inspire  with  a  desire  for  street-lamps.  To 
the  minister  she  can  suggest  institutional  methods 
of  church  work,  and  to  the  school  committee  im- 
proved text-books  and  enlightened  educational 
ideas.  She  will  thus  be  a  power  for  good  in  the 
community  from  which  was  derived  the  money  spent 
on  her  education.    Surely  this  is  rendering  to  Caesar 


Conclusion  313 

the   things   that   are   Caesar's  —  a   process    recom- 
mended alike  by  political  and  social  economy. 

Woman's  real  interest  and  happiness  do  not  con- 
sist in  the  number  of  lines  that  draw  from  the  home 
to  the  outside  world,  but  in  the  multitude  of  avenues 
by  which  she  may  bring  the  best  from  the  world 
without  to  illuminate  the  home.  If  a  girl  must 
work  in  the  world,  let  us  help  her  to  work  nobly. 
But  let  us  urge  her  to  stay,  if  she  can,  quietly  at 
home  "  in  that  state  of  life  to  which  it  has  pleased 
God  to  call  her."  She  need  neither  stagnate  nor 
shrivel  in  her  village  atmosphere.  It  is  her  business 
to  grow  there  just  as  she  would  anywhere  else.  If 
she  neglects  this  she  has  in  a  very  literal  sense  missed 
her  vocation. 


THE  END. 


Index 


Addams,  Jane,  199. 

Adelbert  College,  275. 

Agassiz,  Mrs.  Louis,  98,  99, 
109. 

Agnes  Scott  School,  238. 

Ainsworth,  Mrs.,  196,  199. 

Amherst  College,  9,  194, 

Anderson,  Mrs.  A.  A.,  135. 

Andrews,  President,  164. 

"Antigone,"  65. 

Applebee,  Constance,  12. 

Arkadelphia  Methodist  Col- 
lege, 240. 

Arnold,  Sarah  Louise,  219, 
221. 

"Athalie,"  108. 

Atkins,  Mary,  208. 

Auburn,  N.  Y.,  171. 

Aurora,  N.  Y.,  187. 

Ayres,  Dr.  Howard,  264. 

Barnard  College,  130-143- 
Barnard,  President,  130,  131, 

132. 
Bates  College,  284. 
Bates,  Katherine  Lee,  49. 
Benjamin,  Simeon,  172. 
Bernard,  Sir  Francis,  2. 
Bernhardt,  108. 
Bethel,  Conn.,  9. 
Boston   University,   281,   308. 


Boyd,  Harriet  A.,  306. 
Boyden's,  24. 
Briggs,  President,  109. 
Brinckerhoff,      Mrs.      Van 

Wyck,  135. 
Brook  Farm,  105. 
Brooks,   Rev.   Arthur,   D.  D., 

134- 
Brown,  Samuel  Robbins,  171. 
Brown  University,  168. 
Bryn  Mawr  College,  1 18-129, 

242. 
Butterfield,  Alice,  17. 

Cable,  George  W.,  25. 
Carnegie,  Andrew,  79. 
Cary  Collegiate  Institute,  195. 
Cayuga  Lake,  187. 
Cazenove,  33,  34,  35- 
Century    Magazine,    x.,     15, 

121. 
Channing,   Lucy,    105. 
Channing,     William     Henry, 

105. 
Chapin,  Henrietta  Sheldon,  9. 
Chicago  University,  243,  246, 

288. 
Cleveland     College    for 

Women,  275. 
Cleveland,  Mrs.  Grover,  188. 
Colby  College,  287,  288. 


315 


3i6 


The  College  Girl  of  America 


Columbia  College,  130. 
Converse  College,  294. 
Cooke,  Mrs.  J.  P.,  98. 
Cornell  University,  242,  281  - 

284. 
Cowles,   Rev.   Auerustus   W., 

172. 
Craigie   House,   loi. 
Curtis,  George  William,  58. 
Cutler,  Mary,  303. 

Dalton  Hall,  119. 
Daily  Palo  Alto,  255. 
Dana,  Chief  Justice,  105. 
Dana,  Sophia,  105. 
Daniels,  Mabel  W.,  112. 
Davis,  Fannie  Steams,  19. 
Deerfield,  Mass.,  303. 
Delbrueck,  Doctor,  246. 
Deland,  Margaret,  303. 
Dixon,  President,  226,  227. 
Durant,  Henry  Fowle,  31,  32, 

38,  48,  53. 
Durant,    Pauline    Fowle,    36, 

37. 
Duse,  106,  107. 

Eliot,  George,  180. 

Eliot,   President,  96,  98,   no, 

223. 
Elliott,  Frances,  295. 
Elmira   College,   170  -  182. 
Emery,  Dean,   168. 
Enosburg,  Vt.,  206. 
Everett,  Edward,  105. 

"Fair  Harvard,"  105. 
Fay  House,  96,  104,  106. 
Fay,  Maria,  106. 
Fiske,  Mrs.  Josiah  M.,  135. 
Foster,  Elene,  143. 
Fowle,  Major,  34,  ^6. 

Genesee  College,  279. 
Geneva,  s$. 

Gill,  Laura  Drake,  136. 
Gilman,  Arthur,  98. 
Gilman,  Mrs.  Arthur,  98. 
Gilman,  Rev.  Samuel,  104. 


Girard  College,  183. 
Goucher,   John   F.,    144,   145, 

149,  153. 
Greene,  Rev.  John  M.,  D.D., 

I,  3,  4,  5. 
Gulliver,  Julia  H.,  201. 
Gurney,  Mrs.  E.  W.,  98,  loi. 

Hall,  Dr.  Stanley,  276. 

Hamburg,  33. 

Harkness,  Albert,  iCs. 

Harper,  President,  246. 

Harvard  "Annex,"  98,  loi. 

Harvard  Graduates'  Maga- 
zine, no. 

Harvard  University,  96. 

Hatfield,  2,  5,  6. 

Hazard,  Caroline,  52. 

Hearst,  Mrs.  Phebe,  249. 

Heath,  Florence  E.,  112. 

Henderson,  Dr.  Hanford,  309. 

Hewes,  Hon.  David,  215. 

Higginson,  Thomas  Went- 
worth,   105. 

Hill,  Lucille  K,  50. 

Hinsdale,  Phebe  Allen,  170, 
171. 

Hollingsworth,  Grace,  112. 

Hollins  Institute,  235. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  105. 

Honolulu,  214. 

Hooper,  Rebecca  Lane,  112. 

Horsford,  Lilian,  98. 

Horsford,  Professor,  40. 

Howe,  Mrs  Julia  Ward,  53. 

Indiana  University,  260,  261. 

Jayne,  Violet,  261. 

Jewett,  Miss,  89. 

Johns     Hopkins     University, 

120,  145,  308. 
Jordan,  Mrs.,  256. 

Kansas  State  University,  267, 

268. 
Keller,  Helen,  114,  115. 
Kelly,  Myra,  143. 


Index 


317 


La  Democracia,  212, 

Leach,  Professor,  97. 

Le   Gallienne,   Richard,    I43- 

Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  Uni- 
versity, 255-258. 

Livermore,  Mrs.  Mary  A.,  97, 
285. 

Lloyd,  Henry  Demarest,  302. 

Longfellow,  51. 

Longfellow,  Miss  Alice  M., 
98,   lOI. 

Low,  Seth,  136. 

Lowder,  Mrs.,  179. 

Lucy  Cobb  Institute,  237. 

Lynchburg,  Va.,  154. 

Lyon,  Mary,  2,  71,  7^,  74,  7^, 
77,  93,  171,  207. 

Mabie,  Hamilton  Wright,  ix. 
MacDowell,  E.  A.,  192. 
MacKenzie,    Rev.    Alexander 

Cameron,  174. 
Mary  Baldwin  Seminary,  236. 
McCarroll,  Frances,   17. 
McClung,  Alice,  236. 
McCracken,  Elizabeth,  20. 
McKinley,  President,  89. 
McManus,  Seumas,  143. 
Metcalf.  Albert,  285. 
Mills  College,  206-216. 
Mills,    Rev.    Cyrus    T.,    207, 

210. 
Mills,     Sarah    Tolman,    206, 

210,  213. 
Mitchell,  Maria,  63. 
Morgan,  Mrs.  Henry,  189. 
Morningside  College,  245. 
Mortarboard,    140. 
Mt.  Holyoke  College,  71-95, 

194,  206. 
Moulshan,  Lady,  102. 
Moulshan,   Sir  Thomas,   102, 

103. 

Newburgh,  56. 

Newcomb  College,  225  -  232. 
Newcomb,      Mrs.     Josephine 
Louise,  227,  231. 


Newcomb,  Sophie,  230. 

New  England  Magazine,  x., 
6,   100. 

Newman's  "Idea  of  a  Uni- 
versity,"  28. 

New  Orleans,  228,  232. 

"Noah's  Flood,"  87. 

Noanett  House,  39,  40. 

Norfolk,  Eng.,  54. 

Northampton,   i  -  30. 

Northwestern  University, 
268  -  270. 

Norumbega,  40. 

Oakfield,  19S. 

Oberlin  College,  270-274. 

Oberlin,  John  Frederick,  271. 

Ohio  State  University,  275. 

Outlook,  The,  X. 

Owasco,  N.  Y.,  171. 

Page,  Walter  S.,  143. 
Palmer,    Alice    Freeman,    40, 

295- 
Palmer,  George  Herbert,  vn. 
Peabody,   Josephine    Preston, 

305. 
Pembroke  Hall,  163. 
"Phedre,"  108. 
Plymouth  Hall,  22. 
Poughkeepsie,  54,  65. 
Putnam,  Mrs.  George  Haven, 

136. 

"  Queen's  College,"  2.  ^ 
Quincy,   President,  vii. 

Radcliffe,  Ann,  103. 
Radcliffe  College,  96-117. 
Radcliffe    Magazine,    1 14. 
Randolph  -  Macon      Woman's 

College,    154-162. 
Reed,  Helen  Leah,  100. 
Repplier,  Agnes,  143. 
Ripley,  George,  105. 
Rockford   College,    194-205. 
Roger  Williams  College,  164. 


3i8 


The  College  Girl  of  America 


"Romance  of  Old  New  Eng- 
land Rooftrees,"  io6. 
Rousseau,  54. 

Sage  College,  281  -  284. 

Sage,  Henry  W.,  282. 

"Sakuntala,"  18. 

Sampson,  Prof.  Martin 
Wright,  260. 

Scott,  George  W.,  238. 

Sears,   Mary,  302. 

Seelye,  Harriett  C,  15. 

Seelye,  Rev.  Lauremus  Clark, 
LL.D.,  8-30. 

Sepiad,  The,  167. 

Shakespeare  Club,  47. 

Sherwood,  Josephine,  112. 

Shipard,  John  J.,  271. 

Shorter,  Alfred,  237. 

Shorter  College,  2^7,  238. 

Sibyl,  The,  176. 

Sill,  Anna  P.,  195,  icr,  198, 
200. 

Simmons  College,  217  -  224. 

Simmons,  John,  217. 

Slater,  Mrs.  Horatio,  165. 

Small,  President,  288. 

Smith,  Austin,  3. 

Smith  College,  i  -  30,  136,  306. 

Smith,  F.  M.,  215. 

Smith,  Harriett,  6. 

Smith,  Sophia,   1-8. 

Smith,  William  Waugh,   154. 

Society  for  the  Collegiate  In- 
struction of  Women,  99. 

Southern  Female  College, 
238. 

Stanford,  Mrs.  Leland,  257. 

Stetson  University,  232. 

Stevenson,    Bertha    M.,    293. 

Stewart,  Philo  P.,  271. 

Story,  Mary,  106. 

Story,   William,   106. 

Swathmore  College,  286,  287. 

Syracuse  University,  279. 

Taylor,  Dr.  Joseph  W.,   119. 
Taylor,  President,  62, 


Thaxter,  Celia,  106. 
Thetford,  Vt.,  185. 
Thomas,  President,  242. 
Thwing,   President,  219,  24 

274- 
Tufts  College,  285,  286. 
Tulane  University,  225,  232. 

Union  College,  9,  172. 
University  of  California,  247 

249. 
University  of  Cincinnati,  264 

266. 
University  of  Colorado,  27 
University  of  Denver,  275. 
University   of    Illinois,    261 

264. 
University  of  Iowa,  266,  267 
University  of  Michigan,  253 

255- 
University  of  Minnesota,  249 

253- 
University  of  Missouri,  232 

235. 
University  of  Nashville,  232. 
University  of  Nebraska,  254. 
University  of  Texas,  232. 
University  of  Vermont,  288. 
University  of  Wisconsin,  257  - 

260. 

Van  Ness,  Governor,  289. 
Vassar  College,  54-70,  97. 
Vassar,  Matthew,  54-59,  I73- 
Vaughan  House,  106. 

Walker,  Susan  G.,  121. 

Watertown,  34. 
Weed,  Miss  Ella,  138. 
Weld,  Rev.  Thomas,  102. 
Wells,  Carolyn,  143. 
Wells  College,  183-193. 
Wells,  Henry,  183. 
Wellesley  College,  31  -  53- 
Wesleyan  University,  289. 
Western   Reserve  University,, 

274. 
Wheeler,  President,  347. 


The  College  Girl  of  America 


319 


Whitman,      Sarah     Wyman, 
107. 

'illard,  Frances,  268, 
ood,  A.  A.,  190. 
^lls,  Henry,  183.  185. 
Oman's    College   in   Brown 
University,   163  - 169. 


Woman's    College    of    Balti- 
more, 144-  153- 
Woman's  College,  Richmond, 

239. 
Woolley,  President,  89. 
Wright,  Alice  Morgan,  iSu 


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